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Originally Posted by Tiger444
You guys seem to be another Pakistan, tall and pacy fast bowlers, wily spinners and aggressive hard hitting batsmen. Makes sense since many of your players learned cricket from Pakistan and youngsters are following suit. The improvement has been great to watch. You guys still have a ways to go and as much as I want to see you guys in the Test arena ASAP, it's better if you guys take your time and keep developing your FC structure and facilities. We've learned the hard way since we got handed the Test status way too early.
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I don't know whether it is fair to credit Pakistan for their development, as they never been a product of the Pakistan domestic system. I know every Pakistani commentator is busy pushing that into the mind of every viewer.
It is important to note that these guys as refugees were not allowed to play in their clubs, further more the core of this team, who are now 24-29 years old returned back after the war in 2001 and setup up the U-19 team and later the senior side.
We saw them on TV, so did we see others, in fact 70% of Afghans still sallow over the big days of Australia
. The only thing which may have made us more Pakistan fans than other teams is the fact that Pakistan always have had a few players in their team who are Pathans/Afghans by ethnicity. Like Misbah, Younis, Afridi, Umar Gul, Imran Khan, Juniad Khan etc.
BUT since we've been accepted as a part of ICC, Pakistan has helped us a lot, by playing us a few times, allowing us to use their facilities. Just as Sri lanka, backing us whenever we needed their support.
When that is said, I totally agree with you, we still have a lot to improve in order to be considered for test-status. Our domestic structure sucks so does facilities. But we do need the money from ICC/ACC. Because our current funds, which are paid to us based on our Affiliate team status will bring us no where.