'From that day, I lost interest in cricket' - Karim Sadiq recalls 2018 bomb blast during a cricket match in Afghanistan

Afghanistan cricketers have seen many hardships. The country was under war and very bad political tensions in the early part of the 2000s. Even after that, the cricket team and players’ passion in the country didn’t die. Overcoming every challenge on its way, Afghanistan has risen to greater heights in international cricket and now they are a Test-playing nation as well.

But, an incident back in 2018 had shocked cricket fans all across the globe. During a warm-up match ahead of the Ramadan Cup, which was played annually during the holy month of Ramadan, multiple bomb explosions had happened in a cricket stadium. The explosions caused the death of eight people along with 45 others being injured. Afghanistan cricketer Karim Sadiq, who played that match shared some details about that infamous incident during an interaction with CricTracker.

I tried my best to rescue many injured people: Karim Sadiq

Karim Sadiq revealed what a great tragedy it was. He called it as the toughest day of his life. He revealed some really saddening details about that incident.

“Honestly, that was the toughest day of my life. We were playing a warm-up game before the Ramadan Cup in our city outskirts at night time as we were fasting during daylight hours. One innings was completed and I went out to field, I was standing on the field and in front of my eyes, a bomb exploded,” Sadiq told host Adarsh Raman during the Instagram live session with CricTracker.

The veteran of 24 ODIs and 36 T20Is, revealed that he had to carry injured people. In fact, the bomb was thrown in his direction. The cricketer revealed that he had lost his interest from the game on that very day.

‘They threw the bomb in my direction, I witnessed it with my own eyes and the whole crowd was running. I tried to rescue many injured people, but as I go out through the gate, there were multiple explosions happening. I tried my best to rescue many injured people and admitted them to the hospital, all of them are fine now. From that day, I lost interest in cricket. I lost many of my childhood friends during that blast and I lost smile on my face since that day,” Sadiq recalled.

He played his last international match back in 2018. It was a tragic incident that had spurred a conversation of difficult times in Afghanistan and how cricket is still developing so well despite all the struggles.