Afghanistan's head coach Jonathan Trott is “mind-blown” by the Afghan players for the way they have managed to keep themselves away from political distractions going on in the country for a long time.
Afghanistan are on a high flight in the ongoing T20 World Cup as they defeated Uganda and New Zealand by 125 and 84 runs respectively and are just one win away from making it to the tournament’s Super 8.
Trott praised the Afghanistan team and said that he keeps his team focused only on cricket. During his tenure, Cricket Australia withdrew from two bilateral series citing women’s education and employment opportunities as reasons to not play.
"I try not to get involved in that [political] side of things and to keep it away from the players," Trott said. "Everyone's got their own ideas, but I keep everything about cricket. If there's something that needs attention - like during the [50-over] World Cup, there was the earthquake - then everyone is focused on that and donations to charity, and that's great,” Trott said as quoted by ESPN Cricinfo.
"But otherwise, I try to keep the attention here and keep all the political distraction away. You speak to a lot of the guys about growing up and they don't need to be reminded of things. There are some stories which make me feel very lucky with the upbringing I had and the opportunities I was afforded… I find it remarkable, these players' upbringing and to play at the level they are now. It's truly mind-blowing."
Afghanistan’s squad for T20 World Cup
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Azmatullah Omarzai, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Ishaq, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Rashid Khan (c), Nangyal Kharoti, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Noor Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad Malik
Reserves: Sediq Atal, Hazratullah Zazai and Saleem Safi.
