President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani has awarded the Mir Masjidi Khan State Medal to cricketers who defended Afghanistan in the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup T20 in India.
While talking to the medal award ceremony at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday evening, President Ghani said that the National Cricket Team is a team of champions.
“You did not only earn proud for Afghans but also gave them a hope,” he said at the ceremony.
He praised achievements of the cricketers while citing headlines carried by a number of international media outlets stating “World Twenty20: Afghanistan shock West Indies’.
He promised investing on the infrastructures of sports and said that special attention would be paid to cricket and football in schools as well.
The ceremony was also attended by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) Chairman Nasimullah Danish and CEO Shafiqullah Stanikzai who also updated the President over its programs.
The Afghan team started the World Cup campaign with thrilling performance in the qualifying group stage where they secured consecutive wins in the first three matches against Scotland, Hong Kong and Zimbabwe.
The back to back wins helped the Afghan team to qualify in Super 10 of the World Cup and start campaign against the leading teams of the world.
Afghanistan lost their first match in Super 10 to title defending champions Sri Lanka but they were on the verge of giving an upset to South Africa and England as they lost the two matches narrowly and with less difference of 37 and 15 runs.
However, the passionate Afghan team remained committed in creating a history in their World Cup campaign and managed to defeat the strong West Indies team by 6 runs in their last match on Sunday.
