Afghanistan have World Cup in their sights

Afghanistan will begin their bid to secure a place in the 2011 World Cup by taking on Denmark in the opening game of the World Cup Qualifiers on April 1. It is the first of their five matches and upcoming opponents include Bermuda, Kenya, Netherlands and the United Arab Emirates.

If Afghanistan finish among the top four in Group B, they will progress to the Super Eights stage and, if they are among the top four at the end of the tournament, they will qualify for the World Cup

"Denmark is a must-win match because it would leave us needing one more victory to reach the Super Eights phase," Afghanistan coach Kabir Khan told AFP. "Afghanistan have progressed by leaps and bounds and, if we play to our potential, qualification for the World Cup is possible. Being a largely unknown cricket entity can only help us.

"We have not played much cricket at international level so other teams do not know much about us, but we know a lot about them, especially the United Arab Emirates as I coached them for two years.”