Afghan cricketers celebrate new test status

Record ID: 896549

  • Title: Afghan cricketers celebrate new test status
  • Date: 22nd June 2017
  • Summary: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN (JUNE 22, 2017) (REUTERS) ***WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** AFGHAN CRICKET BOARD OFFICIALS AND SUPPORTERS CLAPPING AFTER HEARING AFGHANISTAN HAD BEEN GIVEN FULL TEST CRICKET STATUS CAKE WITH TEXT READING (ENGLISH) "CONGRATULATION AFGHANISTAN" VARIOUS OF OFFICIALS AND SUPPORTERS AT CAKE CUTTING CEREMONY (SOUNDBITE) (English) DEPUTY HEAD OF AFGHANISTAN'S CRICKET BOARD, DOST MOHAMMAD NAZARI; SAYING: "I would like to congratulate the entire nation of Afghanistan; Afghanistan finally obtained the full status or full membership status for country." JOURNALISTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL CRICKET TEAM MANAGER, SHIRAGHA HAMKAR; SAYING: "Thanks to all the senior and junior players that they have shown their talents to the world that yes we deserve to be the full member nation especially looking to our recent performances in the last one and half years that we have achieved and won many tournaments. Yeah definitely we deserve this and we have achieved this." AFGHANISTAN CRICKET BOARD FLAG (SOUNDBITE) (English) CRICKET FAN RAHIM GUL SARWAN SAYING: "This is huge thing for the whole nation. We are all proud of this cricket team, cricket board to the all officials here, we are so happy and I hope in next five or three years Afghanistan will be in the position to defeat big, big teams." SIGN READING (ENGLISH) "AFGHANISTAN CRICKET BOARD" ON HEADQUARTERS EXTERIOR OF BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 6th July 2017 20:13
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
  • City: KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
  • Country: Afghanistan
  • Topics: Cricket,Sport
  • Reuters ID: LVA0016MD3DJ3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Afghan cricket board officials and supporters held a cake cutting ceremony in Kabul on Thursday (June 22) to celebrate the elevation of their country to test match status.
    Afghanistan and Ireland will join the ranks of full test-playing nations after receiving the backing of the International Cricket Council's (ICC) conference.
    The body said it had voted to admit the two nations into the elite group that is permitted to play traditional five-day test matches.
    As new full members of the ICC, Ireland and Afghanistan will take the total of countries playing tests to 12.
    Until 1982 there were only seven full members of the ICC but that year Sri Lanka were admitted. Zimbabwe then joined in 1992 and Bangladesh became the most recent member in 2000.
    Cricket has a long history in Afghanistan but the country played amongst the sports minnows until gaining one-day international (ODI) status in 2011.
    Two years later, still suffering from the impact of war and conflict, the country was given 'associate member' status of the world governing body ICC.
    In 2015 Afghanistan played in their first 50-over World Cup and they have also featured in the World Twenty20 competition.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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