More than a game

That training camp has now been cancelled, and the team is scrambling to find another location. “So far we haven’t been able to find one,” said national team coach Kadir Khan on Tuesday, hours after the attack in Lahore, pointing out that Afghans have a difficult time getting visas for other countries. “It does affect us. Cricket is a game of practice. It is a subtle game, so if we lose the opportunity to refine the fine points we lose an edge. We will be playing some of the best teams in the world in South Africa, teams that have qualified for the World Cup before, like Canada. Losing world-class facilities where we can train puts a young team like ours at a disadvantage.”

It also weakens the tenuous link between Pakistan and Afghanistan that cricket was in the process of developing. Indeed, the ties that have grown between the two countries through the sport are one of the positive developments in what is an otherwise adversarial relationship dominated by tension over the Taliban’s safe haven in Pakistan. Khan, the Afghan coach, was raised in Peshawar and played for the Pakistani national team from 1993 to 2000. The team has a close relationship with players from Pakistan’s current national squad. “We have a great relationship with them,” says Ahmedzai. “Sometimes they practice with us. We’ve built friendships that are now threatened. It really hurts us now that this has happened.”

It greatly hurt Pakistan as well. If the purpose behind the bloody attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team was to further isolate the country, the attackers may have succeeded, for now. Cricket may have been among the last bridges to the outside world Pakistan had left, given its growing reputation as a birthing ground for violent militants. It was also among the few remaining pillars of national pride in a country desperate for something to turn to for strength and reassurance. Still, there is reason to hope. As terrorists chip away at Pakistan’s last vestiges of self-respect and its international reputation, sportsmen and sports fans in the country may rally. Attacking cricket may backfire on the militants: the pointlessness of such an act against such a treasured symbol of national identity could turn Pakistanis against them, despite the short-term damage it has done. And as for the Afghan cricketers, well, they’ve grown up with adversity. “I’m not worried,” says Ahmedzai. “Mentally we are a very tough team. We will overcome this hurdle.” Based on their track record, no one should count them out just yet.