Asghar Stanikzai thanks BCCI and reckons Afghanistan can spring a surprise

Afghanistan skipper Asghar Stanikzai thanked the BCCI for the support and the facilities they provided for the Afghan side in preparation for the World T20. The Afghanistan side had been training at a practice ground in Greater Noida.

Asghar Stanikzai, the charismatic captain of the Afghanistan team said that Afghanistan was a cricket crazy country.

“There is lot of craze in Afghanistan. The people love this game (cricket). Back home they are very excited. They are following us very closely. It is the No.1 game in the country. We appreciate and thank the BCCI for providing us with a home ground in Greater Noida, they have not only helped us have better infrastructure but they have proved the friendship,” Stanikzai told media persons via his interpreter at a pre-match media conference.

Afghanistan play Sri Lanka in their opening match of the World T20. The last time these two sides met, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara scythed through the Afghan lineup.

Last time we were very near to beating them in the World Cup in 2015. But (Mahela) Jayawardene, (Kumar) Sangakkara batted well and took the game away from us. But they are not there now, so we have a good chance. Sri Lanka is the defending (champion), so we have good players who can change the game. We are looking forward to beating some big names.”

The Afghans have been assisted by Inzamam-ul-Haq and Manoj Prabhakar. “Inzamam and Manoj have done very well, they have shared their international experience with us which has been of great help,” he said.

“Fielding was bad in Asia Cup, we dropped six catches. If you do that any team will beat you. We won next two games but it was too late. But then we practice hard and all the three departments look good now.”

“We can never improve if we play with only associate members. We need to play with big teams to improve. We beat Zimbabwe and now we know how to win against full members.”

“Perhaps everyone is from Afghanistan (players representing the country). We have a very strict rule in the country,” he said.