The Afghani Cricket Team, who came out of nowhere to qualify for the 2015 World Cup
The world’s best cricketers will be in action in February throughout Australia and New Zealand in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. http://www.icc-cricket.com/cricket-world-cup
The 2015 World Cup begins on February 14. India are the current world champions and the trophy has been on a tour of several cities in the country before it heads to Australia and New Zealand, where it will be presented to this year’s champions on March 29 in Melbourne.
There are 14 nations competing for the prize, including countries that—to the untrained eye—might not normally be associated with the sport of Cricket.
Take Afghanistan for one. Only affiliated to the ICC since 2001, their journey has been remarkable: passport issues being just one hurdle that had to be overcome in a country where some players were not entirely certain where they were born.
“All those who want to play cricket for the Afghanistan team please meet here in three months’ time.” If the story is to be believed, in the 1990s those were the words pinned to a bus stop in the North West Frontier of the country where many Afghans had fled to seek sanctuary.
From such humble beginnings, Afghanistan find themselves preparing to travel to Australia and New Zealand for their very first Cricket World Cup.
Scotland also make the long trip, having not featured in the World Cup since 2007. An uphill task also faces them when you consider that in early January they were on the end of an eight-wicket defeat to Afghanistan in Dubai.
Ireland will probably not trouble the final stages of the tournament but they do have a knack of beating some of the biggest names in world cricket and they will be looking to add to the scalps of England (2011) and Pakistan (2007).
The last of the true minnows to feature are United Arab Emirates. The last time they reached the Cricket World Cup was in 1996. UAE recently named Mohammed Tauqir their captain. At 43 years of age, Tauqir is the oldest player in the tournament.
The Pools for the 2015 Cricket World Cup are:
Pool A:
England, Australia, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, New Zealand, Afghanistan, Scotland.
Pool B:
South Africa, India, Pakistan, West Indies, Zimbabwe, Ireland, United Arab Emirates.
