Cricket: Coaching on the front line

In the past 20 years, cricket has grown in popularity in Afghanistan, spread by refugees residing in Pakistan. Photo / AP

One of the first things Andy Moles wanted to be assured about before he took the job of Afghanistan's new head coach was what the Taliban thought about cricket.

Do not worry, the former New Zealand coach was told by his new employers, they approve.

So instead of preparing to join his former Warwickshire team-mates this weekend for a 20th anniversary reunion in the leafy grounds of Wormsley, the private estate of the late John Paul Getty, Moles will be surrounded by armed guards beginning a job many have called the most dangerous in world cricket.

Andy Moles. Photo / NZPA

Moles has, not surprisingly, been taking many calls from friends. "They keep saying: 'are you sure? it's a war zone'."

Despite the threat of kidnap and security concerns, the 53-year-old was happy to be appointed Afghanistan's head coach last week after Kabir Khan, a former Pakistan test player, stepped down.

Moles will take Afghanistan, who have risen to 11th in the International Cricket Council's one-day international rankings, to the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand next year but has spent the past week getting used to the challenges of living in Kabul, a no-go area for most Westerners.

"I've been made very welcome and I'm honoured to have the opportunity to take their national cricket team to next year's World Cup," Moles said. "But it's a country where there are security issues for Westerners and you have to keep your wits about you.

"You don't walk the streets, you stay in your hotel and have room service. You try to take advice from other people who have lived here a long time. You have to live a certain lifestyle here. There are armed guards at the hotel I'm staying at and also at the bank next door. So you get used to seeing MK47s every day. I watched the hotel guards drilling with their guns the other day.

"There are also armed guards at the ground. It's a way of life, but a different way of life."

Moles, who is back in international coaching almost five years after he stepped down as New Zealand's head coach, sought security advice from his brother Mark, a counter-intelligence officer with the Metropolitan Police, before he took the Afghanistan role.

"When I came out here for the first time six weeks ago to discuss a coaching role, I actually felt quite safe. Now the advice I'm getting is that it's not the Taliban wanting to shoot you, the danger around Kabul is kidnap. There is quite a lot of that going on.

"So I don't go out of the hotel at all at night. I get picked up and driven to coaching sessions and get dropped back at night."

Although the earliest records of cricket being played in Afghanistan are of matches involving British troops in the 1830s, it is only over the past 20 years that the game has grown in popularity with the local population, spread by refugees residing in Pakistan.

Afghanistan now have about 40 professional players and the national limited-overs league final was recently played in front of a sell-out crowd in Kabul.

"They are a very proud and tough nation," Moles said. "You only need to read a history of Afghanistan to appreciate what they have been through for many years.

"But not many people beat the Afghan people. You get the feeling when you are amongst them that they don't lie down, so I am going to try to harness that spirit when it comes to cricket."

Moles will begin his attempt to mould Afghanistan this weekend when he takes them on a tour to Australia and New Zealand to prepare the players for their first World Cup. Afghanistan, who qualified in October, will face England, Scotland and New Zealand in Pool A.

UK Telegraph