Did you ever think that you would read a headline like this?  I didn’t even know the USA had a cricket team, let alone that they were playing Afghanistan today, in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2010, for the upcoming ICC  Twenty20 World Cup. The 20 over game has just taken place at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Afghanistan Cricket Supporters

Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat, hitting a modest 135/4 in their 20 overs.  The USA struggled in their reply, losing wickets at regular intervals to eventually only manage 106/7 in reply.  Great bowling by the Afghanis, kept the pressure on, with Hamid Hassan taking the Player of the Match award for his match winning bowling figures of 3 wickets for a miserly 14 runs off 4 overs. Not bad figures for Twenty20 cricket!

The entertaining, fast and furious Twenty20 cricket is really catching on around the world.  The ICC is trying hard to strengthen the Associate playing nations and give them a chance to take on the world’s best at the Twenty20 World Cup in the Caribbean.

Afghanistan have risen through the ranks remarkably and are now well placed to go through the last stages of the Qualifying competition, on their way to the Twenty World Cup.  Perhaps cricket can play an influential role in bringing peace to Afghanistan.   Or at least giving people some hope within their war torn country.  If structures can be put in place to play cricket within different leagues in Afghanistan, then perhaps sport can be used as a catalyst to unify people.

The entertainment factor in Twenty20 cricket is perfect for the USA and I am sure that we will see cricket being played more often in the US.  The US cricket team pulled off a surprise win against Scotland a few days ago, perhaps having a few big hitting West Indian born players helps.