Afghanistan cricket team will hold a series against Pakistan: ACB CEO Hamid Shinwari

After the collapse of the government over the weekend, Hamid Shinwari, director general of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), on Friday said that the team is once again preparing for the one-day series against Pakistan, which is due to be held in Sri Lanka in two weeks.

“We will be playing a series vs Pakistan, we are also good to go for the T20 World Cup,” said Shinwari.

Sri Lanka’s cricket board earlier this week said it was still hoping to host Afghanistan and Pakistan for the three matches in an empty stadium at Hambantota.

The one-day international series starts from September 3.

It was shifted to Sri Lanka after stadiums in the United Arab Emirates – where Afghanistan play their home matches – were instead preparing to host the Indian Premier League.

“With BCCI and other boards we have a really good relationship. ICC is also in touch with us. They are keeping a close track. As of now, there is no problem with cricket,” said Shinwari.

Chaos has broken out at Kabul airport this week as tens of thousands of Afghans try to flee the militants, who swept through the country largely unopposed by government security forces.

Sport was tightly controlled by the Islamic fundamentalist group during their first rule of the country in the 1990s, often viewed by the militants as a distraction from religious duties.

Women were completely banned from taking part.

However, Shinwari said he saw no threats to cricket from the movement.

“Cricket was not an issue during the Taliban regime before and it will not be an issue now. I don’t remember any incident caused by the Taliban over cricket,” he said.

Shinwari said he was unable to comment on the status of women’s cricket but the situation would be clearer in the coming weeks.