海角大神

For the first time 鈥� ever 鈥� Afghanistan today played an international cricket match against an elite team. It was against top-ranked neighbor Pakistan, with whom it has a relationship that is sometimes fraught with uneasiness, sometimes full of professions of brotherhood.聽

But the historic cricket match, which took place in the UAE, both illustrated the love/hate relationship and helped fans on both sides of the border to forget, at least for a while, the tensions that exist between their countries.

鈥淓veryone here is watching the match on TV. It鈥檚 very exciting and we鈥檙e praying hard for Afghanistan,鈥� Pardis Haidary, a military officer in Kabul told the Monitor over the phone. 鈥淢atches like this help build friendship,鈥� he says.

For newcomers Afghanistan, it was their first chance to pick up the bat against a major international team, having previously only played against other low-ranked teams.

Cricket was brought to war-torn Afghanistan through refugees who picked up the game during their time in Pakistani camps, and is popular mainly in the Pashtun-majority areas in the south and east of the country.

Though Afghanistan is new to the game, its rise has been nothing short of a 鈥渨onderful story,鈥� according to the International Cricket Council, which provides the Afghanistan Cricket Board with $700,000 a year to develop the sport.

Relations between the two countries have remained tense since the assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani in September last year. Mr. Rabbani, who was head of a government-appointed peace council, was killed in his home by a suicide bomber posing as a Taliban peace envoy, in an attack that some Afghan officials have blamed on Pakistan鈥檚 main intelligence agency.

Both sides, meanwhile, accuse each other of allowing militant havens inside their respective borders to carry out raids in each other鈥檚 countries. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari is set to host his Afghan and Iranian counterparts for a trilateral summit in Islamabad next week.

At the popular Kabul Restaurant in Islamabad, staff and customers remained glued to their television, rooting for Afghanistan to pull off an unlikely upset.聽 Though the Afghans eventually lost, Pakistan鈥檚 cricket captain, Misbah-ul-Haq, lauded them for the talent they displayed and their fighting spirit, which at times stretched former world-champions Pakistan.聽

Some hoped the goodwill between the players on the field could translate into better relations off it. 鈥淚 have been in Pakistan for 19 years, but I can鈥檛 get a Pakistani passport,鈥� complains waiter Naqeebullah Kabir.聽 鈥淣ow we can鈥檛 get visas to visit home, either.鈥�