Cricketing nomads Afghanistan hurt by lack of dedicated home venue

Where do you feel at home?

Maybe where you're most comfortable. Or most loved. Or have a strong support system. Or where you think you truly belong.

It doesn't have to be all of the above. A couple, maybe even one, could do the job. Unfortunately, Afghanistan don't even have that much when it comes to a "home" venue.

Since June 2017, when they were granted Full Member status, Afghanistan have played their home internationals in the three major cities of the UAE, in Dehradun, Lucknow and Greater Noida in India (which was also home before they became a Full Member). In between that, there's been an ODI series in Sri Lanka, and even one in Qatar in early 2022. Credit to Afghanistan, that despite playing their home ODIs and T20Is across Asia - except never in their actual home - they have improved immensely in the white-ball formats.

Of the five home Test matches Afghanistan have played so far - the one against New Zealand in Greater Noida would have been their sixth - they have not played more than twice at any one ground. They have played Tests in Dehradun and Lucknow, two at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi and one at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi; even within Abu Dhabi, they have had to play at two different grounds.

The least a growing side like Afghanistan deserves is a dedicated home venue that they can reach without crisscrossing international borders and adjusting to different conditions. They have played half of their Tests against the other non-World Test Championship (WTC) Full Members, Ireland and Zimbabwe, and facing a much higher-ranked team like New Zealand would have been "historic", according to their head coach Jonathan Trott.

"I think we could have gained whether we won or lost," Trott said after the one-off Test in Greater Noida was abandoned on Friday without a ball bowled across the five days. "I think the players would have learnt a hell of a lot in this format of the game, which is the challenge going forward in red-ball cricket for Afghanistan."

So why don't Afghanistan have a dedicated home venue? Why do they have to hop between the UAE and India, and play on Indian grounds (barring Lucknow) that do not even host domestic matches regularly?

Because of the political situation in Afghanistan, of course. The UAE is Afghanistan's adopted cricketing home, which is why they have played three of their five home Tests there. But when those grounds there are not available, Afghanistan are forced to play in India.

Once the Test against New Zealand lost the first two days because of a wet outfield, despite the pitch being baked by the sun and no rain during the hours of play, questions started to crop up about why this little-used ground with seemingly substandard facilities was hosting a Test match in the first place. The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) explained that the match could not be held in the UAE because of extreme heat at this time of the year (the only Test to take place in the country in September started on September 28, between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in 2017).

Dehradun also usually witnesses rainfall in September, so the options the ACB was left with were Bengaluru, Kanpur and Greater Noida. Bengaluru and Kanpur, which host international matches regularly, were unavailable because of India's domestic games, so the ACB had no choice but to go to Greater Noida. At least there would have been a feeling of familiarity. They had already played 11 international games there (six T20Is and five ODIs) since 2017, and logistically too it made relatively more sense, with limited connectivity by commercial flight in and out of Kabul these days. "You can get a flight maybe from Kabul and from Dubai to Delhi, and then [the ground is] two hours drive from there," Menhajuddin Raz, ACB's international cricket manager, had said during the Test.

But the big risk they were running was handing a Test debut to a ground that is rarely used even for domestic cricket and last hosted an international game in March 2020. The last first-class match played there was between Afghanistan and Ireland, part of the ICC Intercontinental Cup, in March 2017. Apart from that, the venue has hosted just eight first-class games, all between December 2015 and December 2016.

To add to that, Greater Noida is the suburb of a suburb - outside Delhi, in the state of Uttar Pradesh, and the ground comes under the control of the local administrative authority (Greater Noida Authority), not under the BCCI or the state association (UPCA). The Greater Noida stadium's first-class matches are almost a part of forgotten history and accountability for its maintenance is hard to trace. All in all, the Afghanistan team once again suffered for no fault of their own.

Afghanistan have started playing Tests relatively more regularly in the current FTP cycle (21 from 2023 to 2027, as opposed to 13 in the previous five-year cycle), but it's home advantage they are desperately missing. It's not rocket science that the more Afghanistan play at one venue, the quicker they will figure out ideal combinations and strategies based on the conditions and oppositions. Their Test captain Hashmatullah Shahidi rightly pointed out before the scheduled start of the New Zealand game that the opposition has played more Tests in India than them, and probably had better knowledge of local conditions than the "hosts" Afghanistan.

"If you see, India is our home but when we host teams, the other nations have played more cricket than us here," Shahidi had said. "So hopefully we will get one good venue here in India and we stick with that. If we stick with one venue, it will be more effective for us."

This problem does not seem to have a ready solution but Afghanistan at least have some time to figure it out. Their next Test series consists of two away games in December against Zimbabwe, whom they are slotted to play again in another away series in October 2025, after a one-off Test in Ireland in July. Their next Test against a significantly higher-ranked side will come after a wait of nearly two years, when India host them for a one-off Test in June 2026.

For now, Afghanistan pack their bags and prepare to fly to Sharjah - their original home away from home - to host South Africa for three ODIs. Since becoming a Full Member, Afghanistan have won seven of their ten completed ODIs in Sharjah, all against either Ireland or Zimbabwe. South Africa, at the same venue, have beaten teams like India and Pakistan with a 10-2 win-loss record in ODIs.

The question arises again. Who really has the home advantage?