Afghanistan
With eye to China investment, Taliban now preserve Buddhas
The ancient Buddha statues sit in serene meditation in the caves carved into the russet cliffs of rural Afghanistan. Hundreds of meters below lies what is believed to be the world’s largest deposit of copper.
Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers are pinning their hopes on Beijing to turn that rich vein into revenue to salvage the cash-starved country amid crippling international sanctions.
The fighters standing guard by the rocky hillside may once have considered destroying the terracotta Buddhas. Two decades ago when the Islamic hard-line Taliban were first in power, they sparked world outrage by blowing up gigantic Buddha statues in another part of the country, calling them pagan symbols that must be purged.
But now they are intent on preserving the relics of the Mes Aynak copper mine. Doing so is key to unlocking billions in Chinese investment, said Hakumullah Mubariz, the Taliban head of security at the site, peering into the remnants of a monastery built by first-century Buddhist monks.
Read: Second 'black box' found in China Eastern plane crash
“Protecting them is very important to us and the Chinese,” he said.
Previously, Mubariz commanded a Taliban combat unit in the surrounding mountains battling with U.S.-backed Afghan forces. When those troops capitulated last year, his men rushed to secure the site. “We knew it would be important for the country,” he said.
The Taliban’s spectacular reversal illustrates the powerful allure of Afghanistan’s untapped mining sector. Successive authorities have seen the country’s mineral riches, estimated to be worth $1 trillion, as the key to a prosperous future, but none have been able to develop them amid the continual war and violence. Now, multiple countries, including Iran, Russia and Turkey are looking to invest, filling the vacuum left in the wake of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal.
But Beijing is the most assertive. At Mes Aynak, it could become the first major power to take on a large-scale project in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, potentially redrawing Asia’s geopolitical map.
TOP PRIORITY
In 2008, the administration of Hamid Karzai signed a 30-year contract with a Chinese joint venture called MCC to extract high-grade copper from Mes Aynak. Studies show the site holds up to 12 million tons of the mineral.
But the project got tied up in logistical and contract problems, and it never got past some initial test shafts before it ground to a halt when Chinese staff left in 2014 because of continued violence.
Mere months after the Taliban seized Kabul in August, consolidating power over the country, the group’s newly installed acting Minister for Mining and Petroleum Shahbuddin Dilawar urged his staff to re-engage Chinese state-run companies.
Ziad Rashidi, the ministry’s director of foreign relations, approached the consortium made up by MCC, China Metallurgical Group Corporation and Jiangxi Copper Ltd. Dilawar has had two virtual meetings with MCC in the last six months, according to company and ministry officials. He urged them to return to the mine, terms unchanged from the 2008 contract.
A technical committee from MCC is due in Kabul in the coming weeks to address the remaining obstacles. Relocating the artifacts is key. But MCC is also seeking to renegotiate terms, particularly to reduce taxes and slash the 19.5% royalty rate by nearly half, the percentage owed to the government per ton of copper sold.
“Chinese companies see the current situation as ideal for them. There is a lack of international competitors and a lot of support from the government side,” Rashidi said.
China’s ambassador to Afghanistan has said talks are ongoing, but nothing more.
Acquiring rare minerals is key for Beijing to maintain its standing as a global manufacturing powerhouse. While stopping short of recognizing the Taliban government, China has stood out from the international community by calling for the unfreezing of Afghan assets and has kept its diplomatic mission running in Kabul.
For Afghanistan, the contract at Mes Aynak could bring in $250-300 million per year to state revenues, a 17% increase, as well as $800 million in fees over the contract’s length, according to government and company officials. That’s a significant sum as the country grapples with widespread poverty, exacerbated by financial shortfalls after the Biden administration froze Afghan assets and international organizations halted donor funds. Some has since resumed.
Read: China, Afghanistan pledge orderly, mutually beneficial cooperation
GRAVEYARD OF EMPIRES
At Mes Aynak, a 2,000-year-old Buddhist city sits uncomfortably alongside a potential economic engine. Afghanistan’s tumultuous modern history has gotten in the way of both exploring the archaeology and developing the mines.
Discovered in the 1960s by French geologists, the site was believed to have been an important stop along the Silk Road from the early centuries AD.
After the Soviet invasion in the late 1970s, Russians dug tunnels to investigate the copper deposit; the cavernous bore holes are still visible. These were later used as an al-Qaida hideout, and at least one was bombed by the U.S. in 2001.
Looters then pillaged many antiquities from the site. Still, archaeologists who came in 2004 managed a partial excavation, uncovering remnants of a vast complex, including four monasteries, ancient copper workshops and a citadel. It became clear the area had been a major Buddhist settlement, a crossroads for traders coming from the west, and pilgrims from afar, even China.
To the shock of the non-Taliban technocrats in his own ministry, Dilawar is committed to saving the site and told MCC’s director in Beijing it was an important part of Afghanistan’s history, according to two officials present in one virtual meeting.
He dismissed open-pit mining schemes that would raze the site entirely. The alternative option of underground mining was judged too pricey by MCC. The Culture Ministry has been tasked with presenting a plan to relocate the relics, most likely to the Kabul Museum.
“We have already transferred some (artifacts) to the capital, and we are working to transfer the rest, so the mining work can begin,” Dilawar told The Associated Press.
While the ministry is optimistic a deal can be reached, MCC officials are cautious and pragmatic.
They did not speak to the AP on record, citing sensitivities around the talks happening while international sanctions still prohibit dealings with the Taliban.
They expressed concerns over the feasibility of other contractual obligations, including building a railway to the Pakistan border at Torkham, a coal-fired power plant, and community amenities such as a hospital and schools.
Another issue is how to compensate residents of three villages near Mes Aynak cleared out a decade ago.
Mullah Mera Jan, a 70-year-old local elder, said he is still waiting for funds promised to him by ministry officials after being forced out of his village of Wali Baba.
Still, he too hopes mining will start soon. Villagers were promised 3,000-4,000 direct and 35,000 indirect jobs. The men from his village are on top of the hiring list.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS
In the ministry’s labyrinthine halls, hopeful investors stand in line, documents ready to stake their claim of Afghanistan’s untapped mineral riches, including large iron deposits, precious stones and -- potentially -- lithium.
Knocking on Rashidi’s office door these days are Russians, Iranians, Turks and of course, the Chinese.
All are “in a great hurry to invest,” he said. Chinese interest is “extraordinary,” he said. Rashidi has also reached out to China’s CNPCI to revamp an oil contract to explore blocks in Amu Darya near the Turkmenistan border, terminated in 2018.
Dozens of small-scale contracts have been handed out local investors, many of whom have joint ventures with international companies, mainly Chinese and Iranian.
Ministry revenues have increased exponentially, from 110 million afghanis ($1.2 million) in the year preceding the Taliban takeover, to $6 billion afghanis ($67 million) in the six months since the Taliban assumed power, according to documents seen by the AP. Most of that, however, appears to be from more aggressive taxing, as the Taliban merged their informal tax economy with that of the government. Apart from coal, it not clear if actual mining production has increased.
Ironically, it was the Taliban that hindered work in Mes Aynak for over a decade.
An MCC official recalled how the road leading to the mine was laden with IEDs targeting Afghan forces and NATO allies. An entire Afghan regiment guarded Chinese engineers at the site compound. Mubariz, now the security chief, said he remembered watching them from the mountains where he plotted attacks.
The MCC official said that when his Taliban hosts told him they had restored safety so work could resume, he replied in jest, “Wasn’t it you who was attacking us?”
The men, machine-guns slung around their necks, laughed too.
Taliban blocked unaccompanied women from flights
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers refused to allow dozens of women to board several flights, including some overseas, because they were traveling without a male guardian, two Afghan airline officials said Saturday.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of repercussions from the Taliban, said dozens of women who arrived at Kabul's international airport Friday to board domestic and international flights were told they couldn't do so without a male guardian.
Some of the women were dual nationals returning to their homes overseas, including some from Canada, according to one of the officials. Women were denied boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai and Turkey on Kam Air and the state-owned Ariana Airline, said the officials.
The order came from the Taliban leadership, said one official.
By Saturday, some women traveling alone were given permission to board an Ariana Airlines flight to western Herat province, the official said. However, by the time the permission was granted they had missed their flight, he said.
The airport's president and police chief, both from the Taliban movement and both Islamic clerics, were meeting Saturday with airline officials.
“They are trying to solve it,” the official said.
It was still unclear whether the Taliban would exempt air travel from an order issued months ago requiring women traveling more than 45 miles (72 kilometers) to be accompanied by a male relative.
Also read: Taliban break promise on higher education for Afghan girls
Taliban officials contacted by The Associated Press did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Since taking power last August, the Taliban leadership have been squabbling among themselves as they struggle to transition from war to governing. It has pit hard-liners — like acting Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, who is deeply rooted in the old guard — against the more pragmatic among them, like Sirajuddin Haqqani. He took over leadership of the powerful Haqqani network from his father Jalaluddin Haqanni. The elder Haqqani, who died several years ago, is from Akhund's generation, who ruled Afghanistan under the strict and unchallenged leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar.
Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, like Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts since taking power.
This latest assault on women's rights in Taliban-run Afghanistan denying women air travel, comes just days after the all-male religiously driven government broke its promise to allow girls to return to school after the sixth grade.
The move enraged the international community, which has been reluctant to recognize the Taliban-run government since the Taliban swept into power last August, fearing they would revert to their harsh rule of the 1990s. The Taliban's refusal to open up education to all Afghan children also infuriated large swaths of the Afghan population. On Saturday, dozens of girls demonstrated in the Afghan capital demanding the right to go to school.
After the Taliban's ban on girls education beyond the sixth grade, women's rights activist Mahbouba Seraj went on Afghanistan's TOLO TV to ask: “How do we as a nation trust you with your words anymore? What should we do to please you? Should we all die?”
An Afghan charity called PenPath, which runs dozens of "secret' schools with thousands of volunteers, is planning to stage countrywide protests to demand the Taliban reverse its order, said Matiullah Wesa, PenPath founder.
On Saturday at the Doha Forum 2022 in Qatar, Roya Mahboob, an Afghan businesswoman who founded an all-girl robotics team in Afghanistan, was given the Forum Award for her work and commitment to girls education.
U.S. special representative for Afghanistan Tom West canceled meetings with the Taliban at the Doha Forum after classes for older girls were halted.
Deputy U.S. State Department spokesperson Jalina Porter said in a statement that “We have canceled some of our engagements, including planned meetings in Doha and around the Doha Forum, and have made clear that we see this decision as a potential turning point in our engagement.
"The decision by the Taliban, if it is not swiftly reversed, will profoundly harm the Afghan people, the country’s prospects for economic growth, and the Taliban’s ambition to improve their relations with the international community,” she said.
Also read: Afghanistan world's unhappiest country, even before Taliban
In an interview after receiving the Doha Forum award, Mahboob called on the many global leaders and policy makers attending the forum to press the Taliban to open schools for all Afghan children.
The robotics team fled Afghanistan when the Taliban returned to power but Mahboob said she still hoped a science and technology center she had hoped to build in Afghanistan for girls could still be constructed.
“I hope that the international community, the Muslim communities (have not) forgotten about Afghanistan and (will) not abandon us,” she said. "Afghanistan is a poor country. It doesn’t have enough resources. And if you take (away) our knowledge, I don’t know what’s going to happen."
China, Afghanistan pledge orderly, mutually beneficial cooperation
Visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi met here Thursday with Mullah Abul Ghani Baradar, acting deputy prime minister of the Afghan Taliban's caretaker government, with both sides pledging to conduct orderly and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.
During the meeting, Baradar said Afghanistan is an independent country and is willing to establish friendly relations with all countries in the world.
Read: Taliban break promise on higher education for Afghan girls
The Afghan Taliban's caretaker government is a responsible government, Baradar said, adding that Afghanistan attaches great importance to China's security concern and will take pragmatic and firm actions to ensure security across the country so as to contribute to safeguarding regional security.
Afghanistan cherishes China's friendship and appreciates China's help, especially in offering anti-pandemic support and providing the most needed humanitarian assistance during the most difficult times of the Afghan people, the acting deputy prime minister said.
He hoped that more Afghan commodities could be exported to the Chinese market in the future, and welcomes Chinese enterprises to invest in his country.
Afghanistan is willing to give play to its unique geographical advantage and fully participate in the building of the Belt and Road so as to become a bridge for regional interconnectivity, he added.
For his part, Wang said that the friendship between China and Afghanistan enjoys a long history. China does not interfere in Afghanistan's internal affairs, nor does it seek self-interest or a sphere of influence in Afghanistan.
China is ready to carry forward the traditional friendship between the two sides, and develop normal and neighborly relations with Afghanistan on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, he said.
The Chinese side has noted that the Afghan caretaker government is committed to peaceful reconstruction and has taken a series of positive measures to address concerns of the international community, Wang said.
The Chinese side hopes that the Afghan side will continue to establish an inclusive political structure, implement prudent policies, better safeguard the rights and interests of women and children, and demonstrate the tolerance and friendliness of Muslims, he said.
Wang said that on the premise of respecting Afghanistan's sovereignty, China is ready to carry out mutually beneficial cooperation with Afghanistan in an orderly manner with a focus on improving people's livelihood and enhancing Afghanistan's capacity for independent development, so as to help Afghanistan turn its resource advantage into development advantage.
Read: 250,000 displaced Afghans return to native provinces: gov't
China appreciates and welcomes Afghanistan's active participation in the joint construction of the Belt and Road, and stands ready to extend the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor to Afghanistan, replicate more successful experiences, and make Afghanistan, with the geographical strength as the "Heart of Asia", a bridge for regional connectivity, Wang said.
China appreciates Afghanistan's clear declaration and solemn commitment of not allowing any external forces to use the Afghan territory to oppose its neighboring countries or harm the security of other countries, and hopes that Afghanistan will firmly and resolutely fulfill this commitment, he added.
Taliban break promise on higher education for Afghan girls
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers unexpectedly decided against reopening schools Wednesday to girls above the sixth grade, reneging on a promise and opting to appease their hard-line base at the expense of further alienating the international community.
The surprising decision, confirmed by a Taliban official, is bound to disrupt efforts by the Taliban to win recognition from potential international donors at a time when the country is mired in a worsening humanitarian crisis. The international community has urged Taliban leaders to reopen schools and give women their right to public space.
The reversal was so sudden that the Education Ministry was caught off guard on Wednesday, the start of the school year, as were schools in parts of the Afghan capital of Kabul and elsewhere in the country. Some girls in higher grades returned to schools, only to be told to go home.
Aid organizations said the move exacerbated the uncertainty surrounding Afghanistan's future as the Taliban leadership seems to struggle to get on the same page as it shifts from fighting to governing.
Read:Taliban nixes girls higher education despite earlier pledges
It also came as the leadership was convening in Kandahar amid reports of a possible Cabinet shuffle.
U.S. Special Representative Thomas West tweeted his “shock and deep disappointment” about the decision, calling it “a betrayal of public commitments to the Afghan people and the international community.”
He said the Taliban had made it clear that all Afghans have a right to education, adding, “For the sake of the country’s future and its relations with the international community, I would urge the Taliban to live up to their commitments to their people.”
The Norwegian Refugee Council, which spends about $20 million annually to support primary education in Afghanistan, was still waiting for official word from the Taliban about canceling the classes for girls above the sixth grade. The NRC also provides emergency shelter, food and legal services.
Berenice Van Dan Driessche, advocacy manager for the council, said their representatives had not gotten official word of the change as of Wednesday night, and that girls in the 11 provinces where they work had gone to school but were sent home.
The committee's staff in the provinces “reported a lot of disappointment and also a lot of uncertainty” about the future, she said. They said that in some areas, teachers said they would continue to hold classes for the girls until the Taliban issued an official order.
Waheedullah Hashmi, external relations and donor representative with the Taliban-led administration, told The Associated Press the decision was made late Tuesday night.
“We don’t say they will be closed forever,” Hashmi added.
U.N. special representative Deborah Lyons will try to meet Thursday with the Taliban to ask them to reverse their decision, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
Earlier in the week, a statement by the Education Ministry had urged “all students” to return when classes resumed Wednesday.
Taliban nixes girls higher education despite earlier pledges
In a surprise decision the hardline leadership of Afghanistan’s new rulers has decided against opening educational institutions to girls beyond Grade six, a Taliban official said Wednesday on the first day of Afghanistan's new school year.
The latest setback for girls' education is certain to receive widespread condemnation from the international community that has been urging the Taliban leaders to open schools and give women their right to public space.
The unexpected decision came late on Tuesday as Afghanistan’s education ministry prepared for the new year opening of school, which was expected to herald the return of girls to school. A statement by the ministry earlier in the week urged “all students” to come to school.
Read: Optimistic female Afghan students attend university classes
However the decision to postpone a return of girls going to school in higher levels appeared to be a concession to the rural and deeply tribal backbone of the hardline Taliban movement, that in many parts of the countryside are reluctant to send their daughters to school.
Girls have been banned from school beyond Grade 6 in most of the country since the Taliban returned to power in mid-August. Universities opened up earlier this year in much of the country, but since taking power the Taliban edicts have been erratic and while a handful of provinces continued to provide education to all, most provinces closed educational institutions for girls and women.
In the capital Kabul private schools and universities have operated uninterrupted.
The religiously-driven Taliban administration fears going forward with enrolling girls beyond Grade 6 could erode their base, said Waheedullah Hashmi, external relations and donor representative with the Taliban-led administration.
“The leadership hasn't decided when or how they will allow girls to return to school,” Hashmi said. While he accepted that urban centers are mostly supportive of girls education, much of rural Afghanistan is opposed, particularly in tribal Pashtun regions.
In some rural areas a brother will disown a brother in the city if he finds out that he is letting his daughters go to school,” said Hashimi, who said the Taliban leadership is trying to decide how to open education for girls beyond Grade 6 countrywide.
Read: Afghanistan world's unhappiest country, even before Taliban
Most Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns. In their sweep through the country last year, other ethnics groups such as Uzbeks and Tajiks in the north of the country either joined the fight to give the Taliban their victory or simply chose not to fight.
“We did everything the Taliban asked in terms of Islamic dress and they promised that girls could go to school and now they have broken their promise,” said Mariam Naheebi, a local journalist who spoke to the Associated Press in the Afghan capital. Naheebi has protested for women's rights and says “they have not been honest with us."
Afghanistan world's unhappiest country, even before Taliban
Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world — even before the Taliban swept to power last August. That's according to a so-called World Happiness report released ahead of the U.N.-designated International Day of Happiness on Sunday.
The annual report ranked Afghanistan as last among 149 countries surveyed, with a happiness rate of just 2.5. Lebanon was the world’s second saddest country, with Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe rounding out the bottom five. Finland ranked first for the fourth year running with a 7.8 score, followed by Denmark and Switzerland, with Iceland and the Netherlands also in the top five.
Researchers ranked the countries after analyzing data over three years. They looked at several categories including gross domestic product per capita, social safety nets, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity of the population, and perceptions of internal and external corruption levels.
Also read: Islamic world unites to aid desperately poor Afghanistan
Afghanistan stacked up poorly in all six categories, a confounding result coming as it does before the Taliban's arrival and despite 20 years of U.S. and international investment. The U.S. alone spent $145 billion on development in Afghanistan since 2002, according to reports by the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan.
Still, there were signs of increasing hopelessness.
Gallup did a polling in 2018 and found few Afghans they surveyed had much hope for the future. In fact the majority said they had no hope for the future.
Years of runaway corruption, increased poverty, lack of jobs, a steady increase in people forced below the poverty line, and erratic development all combined into a crushing malaise, said analyst Nasratullah Haqpal. Most Afghans had high hopes after 2001, when the Taliban were ousted and the U.S.-led coalition declared victory,
“Unfortunately the only focus was on the war, the warlords and the corrupt politicians,” said Haqpal.
Also read: Taliban Govt reaches out to India seeking visas for Afghan students stuck in Afghanistan
“People just became poorer and poorer and more disappointed and more unhappy... that is why these 20 years of investment in Afghanistan collapsed in just 11 days," he said referring to the Taliban's lightning blitz through the country before sweeping into Kabul in mid August.
When Masoud Ahmadi, a carpenter returned to Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan after the 2001 collapse of the Taliban, his hopes for the future were bright. He dreamed of opening a small furniture-making shop, maybe employing as many as 10 people. Instead, sitting in his dusty 6-foot by 10-foot workshop on Saturday, he said he opens just twice a week for lack of work.
“When the money came to this country the leadership of the government took the money and counted it as their personal money, and the people were not helped to change their life for the better,” said Ahmadi.
The report warns that Afghanistan's numbers might drop even further next year when it measures Afghans' happiness level after the arrival of the Taliban. The economy is currently in free fall as the group struggles to transition from fighting to governing.
Optimistic female Afghan students attend university classes
At Mustaqbal Pohanton University on the eastern edge of Kabul, the new academic year has just begun. Universities in Afghanistan have been closed since August last year.
"Learning and education are the tools for the country's development," said student Shagofa Mohammadi. "I am very happy that the universities have reopened."
Mohammadi studies Sharia Law. Sitting among more than two dozen female students, she said that it was natural for everyone to want an education.
READ: Twin earthquakes in western Afghanistan kill at least 22
Mohammadi is concerned by a shortage of female lecturers, and some of the classes are taught by male teachers. "According to Islamic Law boys and girls should be educated separately."
Established in 2014, Mustaqbal Pohanton University has a history of encouraging women to get an education, in spite of prevailing challenges and economic problems.
Vice chancellor of the university Najibullah Nasrat is also concerned about teacher shortages.
Following the end of the U.S.-led occupations, many academics fled the country to escape any Taliban retribution. Nasrat said both male and female lecturers left the country in numbers last year.
"We have about 800 students, including 300 women, studying here. We have 45 teachers and only 14 of them are women," Nasrat told Xinhua.
The vice chancellor is more worried about economic problems. Many students are unable to pay their tuition.
Lecturer Shamsudin Ahmadzai is hopeful of a solution, but is critical of Western attitudes to women's education in Afghanistan. He called on the international community to "come in and help us" instead.
Bangladesh eye to beat Afghanistan as T20 series begins Thursday
After winning the three-match ODI series 2-1, Bangladesh are eyeing also to grab the two-match T20 series against Afghanistan starting on Thursday in Dhaka. While the first match will be played on Thursday, the second and final match will take place on Saturday at the same venue.
Read:BAN vs AFG T20I Series 2022: Bangladesh Seek Resurgence in Twenty20 Format Before this series, Bangladesh took on Afghanistan in six matches and won only two. Last year, Bangladesh played 27 T20Is and lost 11 of them. These stats prove that Bangladesh are yet to find their zeal in this format despite playing it on a regular basis. “We’ll try to play T20 cricket with a positive attitude and mentality. The batters need to play fearlessly, and bowlers will also have to show some aggressive approach. Our only focus is to play well,” Mahmudullah told the media on Wednesday. In the recent World Cup that took place in Oman and the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh failed to do well. They had managed to pass the initial round, but failed to win any match in the next phase of the event. With another World Cup on sight, the Bangladesh captain said they are not looking too far now. Instead, their focus is more on the current series. Bangladesh might include Munim Shahriar in the playing XI, who drew the attention of many in the just-concluded season of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) with his ability of clean hitting.
Read:BAN vs AFG T20I Series 2022: Players to Watch “Munim has a good chance to play tomorrow (Thursday). But I cannot confirm it now. We’ll plan on match-day morning about the batting order,” Mahmudullah said, mentioning that Mohammad Naim also has a good chance to start the innings despite his lean performance in the BPL. Munim scored more than 170 runs in the BPL with a strike rate exceeding 150. In contrast, Naim had been out of the form in most parts of BPL while representing Minister Group Dhaka which was led by Mahmudullah. Bangladesh also included Yasir Ali in the T20 squad. The right-handed batter got his ODI cap in the ODI series against the same opponent but failed to prove his mettle on two occasions the batted. Bangladesh are currently number nine in the T20 team ranking while Afghanistan are at eight. Bangladesh will have a good chance to surpass the Afghans if they can win this series 2-0. Bangladesh are going to miss the service of Tamim Iqbal who did well in the BPL. The left-handed batter went for a break of six months from this format. Mahmudullah called his team to play T20 cricket in an aggressive manner. He also said that the batters of the top-order need to come up with some explosive batting to have a good start to the match.
Bangladesh vs Afghanistan T20Is: Tickets go for sale
Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) will start selling tickets for the two-match T20 series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan from Wednesday.
This time, the board will sell 100% of the tickets of Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium’s capacity, Tanvir Ahmed, the chairman of BCB’s media department told the media.
The first match of the series will take place on March 3 while the second and final T20 will be played on March 5.
Due to the Covid-19 situation, BCB restricted entry of the spectators during most part of the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL) recently. However, a few thousand spectators were allowed to enter the stadium during the play-off phase.
READ: Gurbaz guides Afghanistan to easy win
In the first part of the ongoing series in Chattogram, 50 per cent of the spectators were allowed at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
The minimum price of a ticket is BDT 150 and the maximum price of a ticket is BDT 1000.
READ: BAN vs AFG 2022: Notable T20I records between Bangladesh vs Afghanistan
Tickets will be available to buy at the Shohrawardy Indoor Stadium booth in Mirpur 10. Along with that, tickets will be available on the match days at the ticket selling point close to the main venue, beside gate number one of the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
Gurbaz guides Afghanistan to easy win
Afghanistan opener Rahman Gurbaz smashed an unbeaten century to guide his team to an easy consolation win against Bangladesh on Monday in Chattogram.
This win helped the visitors avoid a whitewash as the hosts took the three-match series 2-1 winning the first two matches at the same venue.
Bangladesh wanted to ensure 10 more points to cement their place at the top of the table of the World Cup Super League winning the third ODI, but that did not happen.
READ: Bangladesh look to continue their dominance over Afghanistan
In contrast, Afghanistan managed to secure 10 important points.
Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal won the toss and opted to bat first. But the Tigers failed to face the Afghanistan spin attack well this time.
Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi scalped three and two wickets conceding 37 and 29 runs respectively.
Right-handed opener Liton Das, who struck a ton in the previous match, scored 86 this time. He looked on the way to smash his second ton but fell short of 14 runs. He skied a delivery of Nabi only to be caught.
Tamim (11), Shakib Al Hasan (30), and Mahmudullah Riyad (29) were the other batters to have reached double-digit scores.
All of Mushfiqur Rahim, Yasir Ali, Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz failed to do well this time. Bangladesh lost three wickets due to run-out. The hosts eventually ended on 192 all wickets in 46.5 overs.
In reply, Gurbaz and Riaz Hassan put up an opening stand of 79 runs, which was a solid foundation t0 chase a moderate target of 193 runs in 50 overs.
Riaz fell for 35 to Shakib, but Gurbaz was firm at the other end of the wicket. He brought up his second century in the format and guided the team to an easy win of seven wickets in 40.1 overs.
READ: BAN vs AFG ODI Series 2022: Bangladesh Can Reach Sixth Position in ICC ODI Rankings
Gurbaz remained unbeaten for 106 while Rahmat Shah scored 47.
For Bangladesh, Mehidy bagged two wickets while Shakib took one.
Bangladesh and Afghanistan will take on each other in the two-match T20 series in Dhaka. The first match will be played on March 3 while the second match will take place on March 5.