Spontaneous thoughts following Nepal's qualification

Nepal and UAE's inclusion in the World T20 has caused a situation that for the first time ever, there will be more Asian associates in the world cup than european associates. That begs the question- is this the final end of european domination of cricket? Currently, it looks like the main Associate power has shifted to Asia, whereas until now it was in Europe. Another question asked is: Unless PNG sneak through, there will be no Associates from any other parts of the world other than Europe and Asia, which begs the question- is cricket dying out there?
My personal opinion is a resounding NO to both questions. Although Asia have a very strong presence in this World Cup, they still have a long way until we can say that they (barring Afghanistan) are better than the leading European Associates. In addition, this qualifier was held in the UAE, a stronghold for Asian teams, and I can guarantee they will perform a lot worse outside of Asia. As for the second question, cricket in Africa is definitely not dying out, the power centers are just shifting. Whereas currently Kenya and Namibia are the dominant teams in Africa, the tide is slowly shifting. Already Uganda look like they will pass Kenya soon, and they just have to improve their batting, something that will happen when the likes of young Faruk Ochimi mature. In addition, Nigeria are undergoing a meteoric rise, and their players, led by young Saheed Akolade who is one of the fastest Associate bowlers around (he bowls 145-150 kph) are experienced, determined and raring to go! On top of that, Tanzania, Ghana and even Rwanda will soon undergo amazing rises also, and will assert their places on the world stage in clinical fashion. As for the Americas region, that is a lot more ambiguous, but it is possible to see growth in a lot of places, such as cricket being the fastest-growing sport in Canada. I could write a lot more on the subject, and I didn't even mention the EAP region, but this is growing too long, so I will end here. Once again, good luck to Nepal, and I hope they go far and create a path for countries like Nigeria and PNG who will follow in their footsteps.
Eitan Shai

A blast from the past- this is my first ever article. A preview of WCQ 2014 from a Nepali perspective.

 

ICC world cup qualifier 2014 preview

This is a preview of the WCQ 2014 and of the teams in it.

10 teams will be in,out of which  2 will qualify to the ICC world cup 2015.

These teams will be the 3^rd-the 8^th teams in the WCL championship that is being played now between the top non-test teams,plus PNG and Hong Kong(from WCL division 2) and Uganda and Nepal(from WCL division 3).

The top 2 teams from this tournament qualify for the world cup.

An overview of the teams:

Ireland have already qualified automatically for the world cup(from WCL championship) so we will not include them in the discussion.

Afghanistan:

Afghanistan are one of the teams fighting for an automatic qualifying  spot to the world cup, and currently are one of the two teams most likely to make it.

Strengths:

Afghanistan  have the best bowling attack in the world today. Hamid Hassan,Shapoor Zadran, and Dawlat Zadran form a fast bowling attack that could rival most full members's attacks,and they are backed up very well by Mohammad Nabi and Hamza Hotak/Rahmat Shah in the spin department.

Weaknesses:

No real weaknesses,though their batting discipline needs to be improved.

Stars:

Mohammad Shahzad(bat),Mohammad Nabi(bat+spin),Hamid Hassan(fast),Shapoor Zadran(fast),Dawlat Zadran(fast),Gulbadeen Naib(bat+fast).

Chance to qualify:

10/10

Netherlands:

The Netherlands are the other team that can possibly get the automatic qualification berth from the WCL championship.

Strengths:

Experience. Holland have played the most games out of all the teams in this tournament,and have been in a lot of world cups already.

Their captain,Peter Borren,is from NZ and he knows the conditions well.

Weaknesses:

Their team is almost totally expats/plastic passport holders, and they are in very bad form now in the yb40.

Stars:

Their top star (Ryan ten Doeschate) is not available for this tournament,but they have a few other stars in Peter Borren(bat) and Timm van der gugten(fast)

Chance to qualify:

8/10; chance to maintain ODI status is 9/10.

Scotland:

Have a mathematical chance to qualify automatically, but almost surely won't make it.

Strengths:

Similar to Holland, most of their players have a lot of experience,due to the hole in eligibility rules that they used to sign up county players,including stalwarts like Neil Carter.

Weaknesses:

They have no truly great players,similar to NZ.

Stars:

Majid Haq(bat+spin),Neil Carter(fast),Richie Berrington(bat).

Chance for them to qualify:

9/10. Chance for ODI status 10/10.

Kenya:

They are virtually out of the WCL championship berth contention

Strength:

Batting. Kenya has a batting lineup that is the envy of most,now that their youngsters have finally matured. Kenya's bowlers are also amazing-when they have a good day.

Weaknesses:

Inconsistency. Kenya's team, especially the young bowlers,lack a lot in that discipline.

Stars:

Collins Obuya(bat),Rakep Patel(bat),Alex Obanda(bat),Nehemiah Odhiambo(fast),Nelson Mandela Odhiambo(fast).

Chance for them to qualify:

World cup-6/10. ODI status-9/10.

Canada:

Are out of contention for an automatic berth.

Strengths:

Not very many,I am sad to say. They have a few highly talented batsmen,and the recall of Ashish Bagai will be very welcome.

Weaknesses:

The best players don't get selected. In addition,no bowling talent is rising up.

Stars:

Ashish Bagai(bat),Rizwan Cheema(bat)

Chance for them to qualify:

World Cup-2/10  ODI status-4/10

UAE:

They have a very small chance of securing an automatic world cup spot from WCL championship.

Strengths:

They have a very experienced team,one of the most in the tournament.

Their batting and spin department are among the best.

Weaknesses:

Their fast bowling department is almost non-existent.

Their team is very old-the oldest in the tournament.

Stars:

Khurram Khan(bat),Shadeep Silva(spin),Arshad Ali(bat+spin)

Chance for them to qualify:

World cup-2/10. ODI status-5/10.

Namibia:

Are out of the race for an automatic  qualifier spot.

Strengths:

Namibia's policy of focusing on youth payedoff big time, so now they have a lot of young stars-especially in batting.

Weaknesses:

Lack of experience. Almost all of their players are very young,with only Sarel Burger and Christi Viljoen to provide experience.

Stars:

Raymond van Schoor(bat),Sarel Burger(bat),Louis van der Westhuisen(bat+spin),Christi Viljoen(bat+fast).

Chance for qualification:

World Cup-4/10. ODI status-6/10.

PNG:

Qualified for WCQ from WCL division 2.

Strengths:

A totally unknown side to the world.

They are very familiar with the conditions.

They have a huge amount of talent,and they get a lot of help by Australia that they can develop it.

Weaknesses:

Lack of experience.Not enough top class matches due to the fact that they are so dominant in the region.

Stars:

Geraint Jones(bat),Asad Vala(bat),Jack Vare(bat),Charles Amini(bat+spin),Joel Tom(fast)

Chance they have of qualifying:

World Cup-2/10  ODI status 4/10. The dark horses.

Hong Kong:

Qualified through WCL division 2 to WCQ

Strengths:

Spin attack and Jamie Atkinson.

Weaknesses:

Besides Atkinson there isn't much talent in the side.

Stars:

Jamie Atkinson

Chance for them to qualify:

Virtually zero.They will be very lucky if they don't finish last.

Nepal:

Qualified to WCQ through division 3.

Strengths:

The spin department,led by Shakti, is real good.

Weaknesses:

They don't have any good fast bowlers,which will hurt them badly.

Stars:

Paras Khadka(bat,pace),Shakti Gauchan(spin).

Chance to qualify:

1/10.The conditions will hurt them,since their spinners will probably be negated and they don't have good fast bowlers.They might qualify for HPP though.

Uganda:

Qualified to WCQ through division 3.

Strengths:

Pace bowling.Uganda has a lot of those,and they are quite good.

Weaknesses:

Batting. In WCL their batsmen regularly got bowled out for under 200.

Stars:

Roger Mukasa(bat+pace),Charles Waiswa(pace),Henry Ssenyondo(spin),Davis Arainaitwe(bat+spin)

Chances:

The conditions will suit them,and their bowlers are a handful,so they are dark horses for this tournament.1/10

T

Cricket neighbor relationships – part 3

Part 3 of my cricket neighbor relationships series...

Cricket neighbor relationships – part 3

Eitan Shai

After some time that I haven't been able to write, and a few other articles, it is time to finish this series. For whoever didn't read the first 2 parts, part 1 discussed the relationship England, Australia and Pakistan has with their neighboring Associates, while in part 2 talked about how West Indies, Bangladesh and especially India neglect their duties to their neighbors. In this article, I will round up the series by mentioning what the last 3 Full Members (excluding Zimbabwe) do on the subject, and then round up the series.

South Africa:

South Africa are, when it comes to providing help, one of the best in the world. South Africa include Namibia in their domestic competitions (where they do well), ensuring that the Namibia players get match experience. South Africa also provide the Namibians with top quality coaches, and invite the Namibian players to the South African academies. With Namibia, South Africa are doing there job.

Rating:

6/10. The low rating will be explained below.

Ways to improve:

The keyword here is money. South Africa have a neighboring country (Zimbabwe) in severe debt, which is so serious that their players are leaving the country. Currently, South Africa are not providing help to them, which is crippling cricket there. South Africa need to start providing monetary support to the region, so that cricket can make a comeback there.

New Zealand:

New Zealand are an interesting case. They don't help their neighbors Fiji and Samoa at all, and, while Australia help promote cricket in the entire region, New Zealand haven't once stepped in to help them. On face value, it seems that New Zealand are totally neglecting their duties, and is damaging cricket in the neighboring countries.

However, they provide USA cricket with a lot of support, and have forged a partnership with USACA which has brought into USA cricket a lot of funds. New Zealand have also played a few matches in USA, which drew in big crowds.

Rating:

3/10.

Ways to improve:

Simple. New Zealand must shift their focus from USA, which is West Indies's job to support, and focus on bringing forward cricket in Fiji and Samoa, and trying to revive the near-extinct cricket in Tonga. If they do that, the cricket world will hugely benefit from it, including Cricket NZ themselves.

Sri Lanka:

their neighbors- no tours, no money, no development and no matches. Basically, they acted a lot like India. However, recently that has changed. Sri Lanka have invited countries like Nepal and PNG to play matches in Sri Lanka against quality opposition, helping their players prepare for big tournaments. Recently, they also started programs to aid grassroots development in countries like Malaysia, the Maldives and China. They had announced that in this year's SLPL there would be a lot of Associate cricketers, including 6 players from Afghanistan, but that plan failed following the cancellation of this year's SLPL.

Rating:

6/10.

Ways to improve:

Keep moving in the right direction. Include a Nepali and a Malaysian side into the domestic season. When allowing Nepali players into their development programs, provide them with a way to get there. All these little things add up, and if Sri Lanka implement them, they will benefit from it themselves also.

So now I have summarized all the Full Member's efforts, or lack of effort, to grow the game. The expected question is- are the top Associates themselves helping the weaker Associates? The only associate country that really tries to help it's neighbors is PNG. PNG includes players from Vanuatu in their domestic competition, which gives the Vanuatu players in question vital match experience. In addition, PNG sends players to the Australian competitions for EAP teams, and by doing so raises the level of the team.

Another country that tries to help its neighbors is Kenya. Kenya have tried to include teams from Tanzania and Rwanda in the East Africa Premier League, but they refused. If they would have been included, it would have been a great opportunity for them to test their skills against top-class players, and would have been a big boost for Tanzanian and Rwandan cricket.

Well, that concludes this series. Thank you for all your support, and stay tuned for my new Rising Nations series.

Eitan Shai

Cricket neighbor relationships-part 2

Part 2 of my cricket neighbor relationships series- enjoy!

Cricket neighbor relationships-part 2

Eitan Shai

For all those who haven't read part 1, In this series I am discussing about what the Full Members are doing to help the Associates, and, if possible, to suggest ways to improve and upgrade that help. In part 1 I elaborated on the countries who have contributed to their neighbor's cricket growth, and who actively help them develop their cricket structure. However, not all the Full Members are like that, and some have totally abandoned the good of the game in favor of personal short-term gains. In this article, I will discuss the worst offenders, and try see if anything can be done.

West Indies:

Who would have believed that West Indies, the nation who were severely discriminated by the cricket world until the 70's, do the same thing to their neighbors? West Indies have shut out Canada and USA from their domestic programs, don't help them with anything, and only twice played in USA, and even then they didn't play against the USA team, but against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The lack of support from West Indies is so deep, USA cricket have had to receive help from New Zealand, on the other side of the globe, instead of getting it from nearby! As appalling as the situation is, Bermuda are even worse off. Bermuda are a tiny country, so they are not able to produce a self-sustainable domestic competition, and the current one they have produces very low-level cricket, which means that if a young talent emerges, he has to play elsewhere to improve. The logical solution to that situation would be if Bermuda would send a team to the West Indies domestic competitions, where young Bermudians would be exposed to a good level of competition and could improve there. Unfortunately, not only don't West Indies allow that to happen, they don't even allow single players to join teams there! As a result, if a Bermudian player wants to improve, he has to travel as far as England, which is a very expensive thing to do, and just not possible most of the time for a 17/18 year old player, which caused Bermuda to loose talents like Joshua Gilbert and OJ Pitchers. Cricket in the Americas is declining, and West Indies are not doing anything about it.

Rating:

3/10. They gain a point because of their once-in-a-blue-moon u19 tournaments, which they invite their neighbors to.

Ways to improve:

Unlike the other countries, for West Indies I will go into detail here.

The first, and most crucial, step here must be to include players like Steven Taylor (USA) and Kamau Leverock (Bermuda) in the West Indies domestic set-ups, and ensure they get top coaching while they are there. The next step must be instead of stripping tours by countries like Pakistan, and making them shorter, they should send those touring teams to Bermuda/USA/Canada to play matches there versus the local sides. If possible, they should also play themselves against these countries, and send West Indies A to play there often. Thirdly, they must bring back Canada into their domestic systems, as that has been proven to be a great developing ground for Canada, and a lot of Canada's current team will extremely benefit from that. Finally, West Indies must try provide monetary help and incentives for Canada and USA to develop their grassroots and actually spread cricket among the locals, instead of just relying on players from subcontinential origins. If they do that, countries from the Americas can be powerhouses in cricket, which will also benefit West Indies.

Bangladesh:

Bangladesh are a country that keeps a very low profile. In their policies they always try to be a shadow of India. Although they have a cricket-crazy population which nets them a lot of money, they don't use that to help Associates at all. Bangladesh have not given Malaysia or Bhutan a thing for a long time, which will hurt their development badly. In addition, when there are votes in the ICC about including Associates, Bangladesh always go along with India, and vote against including them. Admittedly, the Bangladesh Premier League is the only T20 competition to include Associates, however, that only happened because Pakistan pulled out of the competition and they needed replacements. Overall, a big disappointment from a country that recently was an Associate also, and because of that should be giving back more.

Rating:

2/10

Ways to improve:

Remember where they came from. Start with sending coaches to Bhutan and China, and inviting them to play in Bangladesh.

 India:

India are easily the worst of all[sz1]  countries in providing help and supporting their neighbors. Although their cricket board is the richest by a very long margin, they are greedy and keep all that money for themselves, and although countries like Nepal are begging for help, India don't give anything. India don't allow Nepali players to play in their domestic competitions, forcing the Nepali team to practice against club and school teams, which are so much behind Nepal that they don't have much of a challenge, which leads to poor performance in tournaments like the recently concluded WCL division 3. India also refuse to allow Nepal and Afghanistan to send their players to places like the MRF pace foundation in Chennai, which could have seriously helped their players develop, and iron out their technical faults. Furthermore, in virtually every ICC vote they always try make it harder for the Associates, by voting against them and leading the whole Asian block to support that vote. A good example of this behavior is India's continued obstruction of Ireland's Full Member ambitions, even though they deserve it according to unanimous opinion.

Rating:

1/10. If I could give them a 0, or even negative numbers, I would do it.

Ways to improve:

Change everything. Stop being so greedy and pigheaded. Accept the fact that you have a big responsibility, and act accordingly.

The big question is- why? Why do these boards sacrifice the good of the game for their personal short-term gains? They have got a golden chance to spread the game, why are they misusing it? These questions, among others, I don't really have answers for. If you can provide answers in the comments, it would be a big help.

After the optimistic part 1, and this depressing part 2, there are still 3 more Full Members to cover- South Africa, Sri Lanka and New Zealand. These I will discuss in part 3, next time. Until then, goodbye and have a very nice day.

Eitan Shai

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 [sz1]

Cricket neighbor relationships-Part 1

Part 1 of my "cricket neighbor relationships" series, enjoy!

Cricket neighbor relationships-Part 1

An analysis of how Full Members are currently helping Associates, and how they can improve

Eitan Shai

Cricket is growing tremendously all over the world, and has reclaimed it's status as the world's 2^nd largest sport. Teams from countries like Ireland, Afghanistan and Scotland are already challenging more established cricketing nations. Unfortunately, I think we can all agree that the Full Members are not doing enough to help the newer countries. Currently the Full members are only acting in their own narrow interests, and fail to look at the greater picture. In this short series of articles I will look at what each full member is doing to help it's neighbours, and I will suggest ways how they can improve.

I will exclude Zimbabwe from this discussion, since they have a serious financial crisis of their own, because of their government, and can't do anything really to help anyone.If they had any money, it would be better spent in paying their players!

OK, let's begin.

Australia:

Australia are probably doing the most out of any full member to help out Associates. They have included young players from PNG into their scholarship program for a long time now, and this year are also including a PNG team in the South Australian Premier League (a feeder competition for the Shield). Australia also give money to Cricket PNG, and send coches over to help PNG development. Australia try involve PNG in matches with touring teams, such as the recent U-19 tournament with Australia,New Zealand and India, where PNG was included as the 4^th team.

Rating:

9/10.

Ways to Improve:

Australia are doing a good job at the moment with helping PNG, and they just need to continue like they are now. One thing they should do more is include Vanuatu and Indonesia in their aid, such as including Vanuatu players in their club competitions, and sending skilled coaches to Indonesia to help their grassroots.

Overall one-sentence summary:

Australia are doing a good job of helping their neighbors, and because of that we will probably see the EAP region start to rise up the rankings.

Pakistan:

Pakistan are also doing a lot for their neighbors Afghanistan. This year they invited Afghanistan to send a team to their domestic set-up, but Afghanistan turned down the offer. They send in a lot of support to Afghanistan, both monetarily and in the ICC. Afghanistan's amazing coach, Kabir Khan, is also from Pakistan, and a large part of Afghanistan's success in the world stage is due to him.

Rating;

7/10

Ways to improve:

Matches. Despite no teams wanting to play in Pakistan, they have only played one 50 overs match against Afghanistan. This is very harmful for Afghanistan, and as a result Afghani players have much less match experience. Pakistan should be scheduling an annual 3 match 50 over series against Afghanistan, together with a T20, at least.

Overall one-sentence summary:

Pakistan are doing an OK job, providing much needed help, and hopefully will continue the good work.

England:

Until recently, England were the best neighbors of all, including teams from Scotland and the Netherlands in their domestic competition, while almost all Ireland's players participated in the County Championship, and also included players from Jersey and Guernsey in club cricket. They also used to have regular matches against Ireland and Scotland, providing those countries with high level opposition. However, this year everything has gone downhill. England have cancelled all foreign involvement in their competitions, along with their matches against Scotland. Although Ireland still has players in the counties, however, that probably will also be drastically reduced, especially now with the new domestic tournaments in Ireland. Meanwhile, the very annoying trait of poaching players continues, with Boyd Rankin the latest player to switch sides. Because of all this, England is currently among the worst offenders of this crime (not helping Associates)

Rating:

3/10.

Ways to Improve:

Two vital things: bring back all the help that was taken away, and stop poaching players!

Overall one-sentence summary:

Although England used to be good, nowadays they are withholding help, which has a very damaging effect and will cause the affected teams a lot of problems.

Part 2 of the series discusses India, Bangladesh and West Indies. Until then, goodbye.

Asian championship concept

Another old article of mine- enjoy!

Asian championship:

This last year's ranji trophy was a disaster. Almost half the matches in the group stage were drawn, and were very boring. The playoffs were even worse, which caused fans to stop watching totally. The domestic first-class tournaments in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are in a state just as bad,at least,as the ranji, and all of them are being rapidly eclipsed by t20 leagues.

One option could be to reduce the number of teams, similar to tournaments  in Australia and South Africa, but using that option would let a lot of talent go unnoticed, and so that plan will not work in Asia.

My solution is to set up a league comprised of all of these countries together, called the South Asia Champions Tournament.

In its first edition, the league will be made of 32 teams: 15 teams from India, 6 teams from Pakistan, 4 teams from Sri Lanka, 3 teams from Bangladesh, 2 teams from Afghanistan and one team each from Nepal and Malaysia. These 32 teams will be divided into 4 divisions of 8 teams each, as follows:

Plate Division	Challenger Division	Elite Division	Premier Division
Team 13 India	Team 9 India	Team 5 India	Strongest team India
Team 14 India	Team 10 India	Team 6 India	Team 2 India
Team 15 India	Team 11 India	Team 7 India	Team 3 India
Team 5 Pakistan	Team 12 India	Team 8 India	Team 4 India
Team 6 Pakistan	Team 4 Pakistan	Team 3 Pakistan	Strongest team Pakistan
Team 4 Sri Lanka	Team 3 Sri Lanka	Team 2 Sri Lanka	Team 2 Pakistan
Team 3 Bangladesh	Team 2 Bangladesh	Strongest team Bangladesh	Strongest team Sri Lanka
Strongest team Malaysia	Team 2 Afghanistan	Strongest team Nepal	Strongest team Afghanistan

Each team will play each other team in its group in a home fixture and an away fixture every season, with one match being played per week. All the matches will be 4 days long, and will have first-class status. For each win, the respective team will get 3 points, for a draw 1 point, and for a loss nothing. This will ensure the importance of winning, so that teams will actively try to win instead of working towards a dull draw. At the end of every season, the top two teams and the bottom two teams from each division will undergo a promotion-relegation system. This should create a wide interest in all the matches involved. International matches will be played as usual in this period, forcing each team to maintain depth in their squad. All the matches will be televised in every participating country.

Each team will be allowed one overseas player for the season. In addition, each team from the top division will be allowed one extra overseas player, who must come from a non-full member country. Outside of that, each player in a certain team must have full citizenship from the country that team belongs to.

This tournament will be run by the ACC, who, after every 5 years, will make changes to the tournament when they see the need. For example, if the ACC see that the team from Nepal is dominating the competition, they might decide to add another Nepal team, to restore interest. Also,if they see a country like China or Singapore improving, they might decide to add a team from there.

Underneath this competition, each country will run their own domestic league, out of which each team from this competition can select players, according to their region.

This setup will ensure that the domestic competition will be very competitive and exciting, while ensuring that no country involved will miss any budding talent. I hope the ICC/BCCI wake up some day, and preferably implement this suggestion.

Afghan domesic problem

I wrote this article a while back- enjoy!

Afghan domestic problem

The current situation in Afghan domestic cricket, and how to improve it

Eitan Shai

Ever since Afghanistan started their rise to the top, their standard of cricket has improved dramatically. Unfortunately, their domestic structure has not progressed at the same pace. This leads to a very large number of players selected in the Afghanistan national team, who totally fail. Good examples of that are Najibullah Zadran, Afsar Khan and Javed Ahmadi, who were (and still are) very talented players, but they were thrown in too early,before they had developed enough. The big problem is that there is a very big gap between domestic level and international level, that causes uncertainty who is ready for the step up.

My solution is to totally revolutionize domestic cricket in Afghanistan, and to make a clear pathway to the national side.

 I base my formula on the successful early-90's Zimbabwe domestic system, which produced players such as Tatenda Taibu, Mpumelo Mbangwa, Sean Ervine and Everton Matambanandzo, all of which were world-class, and if not for the politics of the country, would have turned Zimbabwe into one of the top 

sides in world cricket.

The plan will work as follows:

First, establish a countrywide network of club cricket. This ensures that no talent will be missed, and enables young players to get playing time

Next, make provincial tournaments, where the best cricketers from the clubs can get selected. These tournaments will be separate for each province, and generally include 4-5 teams each.

Following that, establish nationwide domestic competitions, with one team per province, that compete in the 3 different formats of the game- a t20 competition, a separate 50 overs competition, and a totally different multi-day tournament. Cricketers that do well in these competitions must get the chance to progress forward, but only in the format they excel in. For example, if a player such as Javed Ahmadi does well in the t20 tournament, but not so well in the 50 overs, he must only be selected for t20. For each of the provincial teams, a world-class coach must be hired, to help the players develop.

After that, make an agreement with Pakistan that Afghanistan will send two teams every year to participate in Pakistan's domestic competitions. The players in those two teams must all be players who have done well in the Afghanistan provincial set-up. The reason behind this move is that Pakistan's domestic competitions are of a much higher level than Afghanistan's will be for a long time, so playing there is a big step up for the players, who can learn a lot, and the administrators can select the best few.

The best players from there will be selected in the Afghanistan A team, made of the best performers in the level above. This team will have full=time coaching by the best coaches available, to help them make the final step up. This A-team will regularly tour overseas, and will play matches against sides like lower-level Associates and Full member top domestic teams.

Finally, the best from the A-team can get selected for the national team. By now, they will already have proven themselves against top-level opposition, in various conditions, and in all situations, and any technical problems they might have had have all been solved. By now, only the players who will succeed will have survived, and they will no disappoint.

If Afghanistan implements this structure, they will definitely perform, beat everyone, and become one of the best sides in the world.

Yours truly,

E.Shai