Delhi’s Little Kabul divided: For some cricket a ‘Taliban’s sport’, for others a few shattered phones when Afghanan loses | Cricket-world-cup News

Couple of days before Afghanan’s game against India in Delhi, the Afghans in the capital are yearning for their roots. At a post-graduate men’s hostel in Delhi University’s North Campus, Haseebullah Siddiqi, who fled Afghanan in August this year before the Taliban regime took over, was taking recipe instructions from his motherHaseebullah, actor in Punjabi movies, is preparing a feast for his childhood friend Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Afghanan’s wicketkeeper-batter.
“We grew up in Khost, and played cricket together. I met him during the IPL earlier this year. This is the best I could do for my brother,” he gets emotional. He drops his mobile and cusses in Pashto.
While Haseebullah is piecing together his dismantled phone his friend Mohammad Rafi shares a back story. Rafi too is an actor, he played small roles in Akshay Kumar starrer Housefull 3. “He hates it when Afghanan lose a game. He smashed his phone multiple times when Afghanan lost a close match against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup.”

In another room at the hostel, Nazamudin Asar is drenched in sweat after playing badminton for two hours. Sipping his Afghan tea in a 12×12 ft room, he pipes up, “Are tickets available for India vs Afghanan match? I have been trying for the past few days.” He smiles as he adds, “muskil hoga nahi (It will be difficult, right?)”.
Nazamudin Asar is pursuing PhD in Delhi University and has been in India for the past nine years. (Special arrangement)
Asar, 28, hails from Kandahar and has been living in India for nine years and is in the final stage of writing his PhD thesis on the India and Afghanan trade route over the years. “I love badminton. I fell in love with the sport after I moved to Delhi in 2014. But cricket back home has grown popular because of this team. It’s an emotion, a feeling, that provides entertainment to the people who don’t know what the future lies for them.”
Little Kabul
Mohammad Usman, a second-year Political Science (H) student from Dayal Singh College, helps his father to run a grocery shop in Janpura’s Bhogal area, also known as mini Kabul, and can’t wait to get a glimpse of his idol Mohammad Nabi. But he is unsure whether his abbu will allow him to go and watch the match.
“If abbu agrees, then I will go and watch the match. My friends are going. But I don’t think I will be able to go. I am the eldest in my family. My younger siblings have exams and I will have to be here at the shop,” he says with a smile.
Usman’s family moved to India in 2016 from Jalalabad after his father, he says, received constant threats from the Taliban. Since then he has managed to study and also help his father set up a shop. He wants to become an IAS officer.
The Burger shop run Raissuidin Haidri and Mohammad Almas in Lajpat Nagar. (Express Photo Pratyush Raj)
“For us, it’s easy to juggle between work and study. We are pathans, we never get tired. It’s in the DNA. Back in Afghanan, we have to learn things quickly. You have to look out for yourself and your family. Political Science is an easy subject (laughs). I want to do a masters from JNU or Jamia and then will go for public service exams,” he says with a glint in his eyes.
Usman loves Indian cricket and cricketers. He is a fan of Rishabh Pant because he hits sixes on demand and loves the aggression of Virat Kohli.
‘It’s a Talibaani sport’
Amidst the excitement about seeing their stars in flesh and blood, there are some mixed feelings as well. Musa Khan, who runs a dry fruit shop with Haji Zahir calls it a Talibaani sport and has no interest in going or cheering for them.
“I hate cricket. It’s a Talibani sport. I love football and swimming. I was in the third year of my engineering course in Kabul. Our college was run the South Korean government. In 2021, I was supposed to go to Seoul for my internship. Now here I am in India, without a visa, running a shop with my future in the dark,” he says.
On August 15, 2021, Javed Lala was on a flight to Amsterdam to present his paper “Reestablishment of Democracy in Afghanan with the failure of American policy.” It was only when he touched down and opened his phone he got to know about the Taliban taking over Afghanan. Since then he has lived in Amsterdam, working in an Afghani restaurant as the Indian government is not giving visas to the Afghanan citizen.
Rohid Hafzili hails from Kandahar and now runs a sells bread and Afghanan’s saffrons in Lajpat Nagar. ((Express Photo Pratyush Raj)
“I have one year left to complete and submit my PhD. My professors at DU have tried hard but it is futile. The Indian government is not giving visas to us,” Javed tells this newspaper from Amsterdam. “And there are thousands more like me.”
He explains why cricket was never a sport in Afghanan and how it has prospered in his country.
“Cricket is a Talibaani sport. It was never popular in Afghanan. You have seen the movie Khuda Gawah (starring Amitabh Bachhan and Sridevi), the movie shows a sport, ‘Buzkashi,’ where the horse riders battle it out for a goat. It is our national sport. It’s a kind of battle of tribes, who is superior. Yes, with the Russian invasion, football also became popular but cricket was never a sport.
“You see all the cricketers. They have grown up in refugee camps in Peshawar. The Afghanan Cricket Board was founded during the first regime of the Taliban. People in the UK media were going gaga over the fact that they have kept cricket. Boss, that’s their ba.
“Apart from tribal sports and football, hockey used to be a big thing during the 1970s. It was because of Zahir Shah, the last ruler of the Afghanan Kingdom. Helmand is now the most dangerous place in Afghanan but it used to be a hub of hockey. They used to have a girls team. Zahir Shah has studied in Dehradun and used to play hockey a lot. That’s the reason it was a popular sport. Now it is an authoritarian state like Iran and Saudi Arabia,” he says.
Raissuidin Haidri was a Supreme Court Lawyer in Kabul. He is stuck in India for two years and runs a burger shop with his friend in Lajpat Nagar. (Express Photo Pratyush Raj)
Lawyer selling burgers
Raissuidin Haidri runs a burger shop in Lajpat Nagar with his friend Mohammad Almas.
Haidri was a Supreme Court lawyer in Kabul who was in India during the Taliban’s takeover. He has not seen his son, who was born a month later in Kabul.Most Read
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“I have twin daughters and one son. I have not seen them for two years. I am struck here. I came here for a legal workshop and now I am selling burgers. Do you think I give a f*** about cricket.”

Meanwhile, Almas was a journal in Herat and left Afghanan in 2018. He has not spoken with his parents and is worried about their safety, since his village is worst affected the earthquake that hit his country on Sunday.
“I spoke to a relative; he said my father and mother are safe,” he says. “I have watched Afghanan’s match against Ireland in Noida. It was fun, and tickets were cheap. I will try and get a ticket in black on Wednesday as well. I love my country and I will support them throughout the World Cup,” he hands over a burger to a customer.