MI Cape Town's leg-spin sensation Rashid Khan — from refugee to superstar

Daily Maverick

2 days ago

The Afghanistan T20I captain, who lived as a refugee in Pakistan in his formative years, is a global cricket sensation these days.
The Durand Line – a 2,640km stretch between Afghanistan and Pakistan – is one of the most contentious borders in the world because Pakistan, but not Afghanistan, recognises it as the official border between the two countries.
It was set up in 1893 and split various tribal ranges. To this day, people on either side of the border, such as the Baloch and Pashtuns, share an identity.
From 2001 to 2021, millions of Afghans used the Durand Line to flee the US war in Afghanistan, which began after the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center by the Taliban-allied and Afghanistan-based al-Qaeda.
One of them was Rashid Khan, now Afghanistan's T20I cricket captain and one of the biggest names in this version of the sport.
Khan (26), a megastar and also captain of MI Cape Town in South Africa's SA20 – who led them to their maiden title earlier this year – lived as a refugee in Pakistan in his formative years along with his 10 siblings.
He used to trek between the two countries as an adolescent and spent a lot of time in Pakistan, perfecting his craft of big hitting and wizard-like leg-spin bowling.
It's not too dissimilar to the story of how cricket in the modern era started in his home country in the 1990s, when the sport was brought to the country by Afghans returning from Pakistan after the Soviet-Afghan War between 1979 and 1989.
Getting better
It's little surprise, then, that the player on whom the leg-spinner has modelled his game is Pakistani cult legend Shahid Afridi.
Afridi, like Khan, was a power hitter in the lower order, but what he liked was the speed at which the Pakistani delivered the ball. It was different from the legendary Shane Warne.
'It's about the action,' Khan said in an exclusive interview with Daily Maverick, which was organised by Red Bull after he had been announced as an ambassador for the energy drink.
'He was also a leg spinner but bowled quick, and I feel like that's the kind of leg spinner I wanted to be.
'It doesn't give much time to the batter to play you on the back foot and allows him time to bowl quicker. I think that's how I used to bowl as well at home and that's how I started bowling quick leg spin.'
The sport has grown rapidly in the country in the past few years. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was recognised as an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2008.
Afghanistan gained associate membership in 2014 and only three years later, in 2017, did they gain full ICC membership as a Test-playing nation.
They qualified for their first T20 World Cup in 2010 and their first Cricket World Cup in 2015, and have played in every tournament since then.
They also reached heights other young cricketing nations could only dream of in that time.
In the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India, Afghanistan were a magical Glenn Maxwell innings – and one other result going their way – away from sealing qualification for the semifinals.
And at the 2024 T20I World Cup, under Khan's leadership, they qualified for their first ICC semifinal, but were thrashed by nine wickets by South Africa in their first knockout match.
It's a huge improvement on their first displays in either tournament, winning only one and zero matches, respectively.
'Before, the expectation from the people was that we just need to play the World Cup. It doesn't matter if we do well or [badly] in the World Cup, but we must be part of the World Cup,' Khan explained. 'That was big for us as a nation and as a team.
'When I became a captain of the Afghanistan team, that was the first time I led the team in the World Cup 2024. And the only message I gave to the guys is that it's enough for us to say we are happy and proud to be part of the World Cup, [but] let's make it bigger and make it more for us… to be in the semis and to beat some big teams.
'Only participating is not big for us because we have done so for many years. For us now, it's to do something special, something bigger and that is to target the big teams, to beat them and target the next stage, which is the semifinals. And that… for us should be the challenge.'
Khan plays his cricket in the belief that he's the best cricketer in the world, and he tries to carry that same belief over to his team.
Of his aspirations of reaching the final of ICC tournaments with Afghanistan, he said: 'We are capable of doing that. We have those skills and we have that ability where we can deliver and reach that position. But it's just about having that belief…'
Women's side lagging
Although Afghanistan's national men's team has grown exponentially over the past two decades, the women's national side has fallen by the wayside.
Before 2001, cricket was banned by the Taliban, along with every other sport, but an exception was later made.
When the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan in 2021, after the departure of the US from the country, most sports were allowed to continue – but only for men.
Afghanistan's ICC recognition as a full-member nation in 2017 came with the understanding that they would work towards meeting the criteria that they did not yet fulfil at that time.
One of those was developing a women's team. They did so and awarded 25 national contracts to women and had tours planned. However, after the Taliban took over less than a year later, this was all disbanded.
What does the captain of the national men's side have to say about the situation, having represented the country for the past decade?
'Well, that's a difficult question to answer for me,' he said honestly. 'Some things are not under your control.
'I feel like these are the things which are more on the political side. And then for me as a player to discuss them… If I say different things, my point of view makes no difference. I'm the captain of the national team, but still these things come from high, high [above] your level where you don't have that kind of reach.
'There is the cricket board and there is the ICC to look into these issues. And I feel like they are the best people to solve all these issues and to give a proper answer…'
Most of Afghanistan's women cricketers had to travel a lot further than the Durand Line to play cricket safely, with 19 players having escaped to Australia to restart their lives and cricketing journeys.
Perhaps one day, maybe after a few more wars, Afghanistan's national women's side will achieve the same success as the men. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.