Afghanistan's astonishing rise

Natural talent and increased access to instruction and competition are helping to make Afghanistan an unlikely cricketing force, writes Andy Bull in the Guardian.

The speed of Afghanistan's climb through the ranks of world cricket has been improbable. In the past 11 months they have played in, and won, three lower-ranking qualifying tournaments to reach this stage, winning 15 games and losing only twice. South Africa's Isak Steyl Stadium, a few miles down the road from the scene of the Sharpeville massacre, is the latest stop on a journey that has taken the team from the Channel Islands to Argentina via Tanzania. For any country to have achieved so much so quickly is remarkable but for a team to have done so in the midst of the instability, confusion and poverty of war is astonishing.