'The fairy tale of Afghanistan cricket is what they've achieved with few resources'
The team's head coach on how far they have come, the areas they're working on improving, and his coaching philosophy
"What I can take with me when I leave one day is just to see how humble a team this is"
Lance Klusener, veteran of two ODI World Cups and part of
one of the most memorable World Cup matches ever, is back at another world tournament, this time as Afghanistan's head coach. He talks about dealing with challenges on and off the field, and the roles played by the Afghanistan senior players
Afghanistan have beaten West Indies in the warm-ups, ran Pakistan close in the main tournament, and won two games. What do you make of the start?
I think it has been solid. We understand that, with due respect, it's Namibia and Scotland that we managed to beat. Yes, we had a very good game against Pakistan, and we were just a bit unlucky in the end. It's important to have got the points and the run rate that we do have now, but really the competition for us is still to start, with India and New Zealand, which are two world-class teams.
When Afghanistan came up against India in the 2010 T20 World Cup, it was a lopsided match-up. Now, if they beat India, they will be on the brink of a semi-final spot. In a way, does this illustrate the evolution of Afghanistan?
Yes, absolutely. Going back to
Asghar [Afghan], that's the leadership with which he has been able to move the team along. The reality is that we're still growing and still have a long way to go. However, the fairy tale of Afghanistan cricket for me has been what they've been able to achieve with relatively few resources - that has been outstanding. And as I said, achieving that and still being humble people, the future is bright.
You've been with Afghanistan as head coach from 2019. What has impressed you the most about this team?
Just their passion for the game, their willingness to learn and their willingness to become better. That's just amazing - how hard they work. So I'm not really surprised that they are achieving what they have done in a short time. Just extremely proud.
What have you learnt as a coach in your time with the side?
I've coached around the world, but what stands out for me is just how humble these guys are, how respectful they are, and how aware they are of their roots and their responsibility to their supporters. That's extremely important, to keep your feet on the ground, which they do
What's your coaching philosophy? Are you a hands-on coach?
I'm hands-on where I need to be. At this level, it's about creating an environment that will allow all the players to grow. You've got your senior players - Rashid Khan and
Mohammad Nabi, for example - who just really need an environment to continue to grow, offering them [help] where and when they need it.
Then you've got your youngsters in the squad who probably need more hands-on guidance, so I think it's a combination of taking a step back when you need to and stepping in and getting your hands dirty when you need to. The trick is knowing and getting your timing right. I think we're lucky that we've got a nice mix of youth and experience; we have a good combination of coaches for this competition as well.
Speaking of the coaches, what have Andy Flower and Shaun Tait brought to the squad as consultant and bowling coach?
Experience and credibility. Andy was the coach of England when they won this competition [in 2010] and it has been good for me to have other senior coaches to bounce ideas off. But it's also nice for the players - they get a different perspective on batting or bowling. I'm quite big on getting outside help. Sometimes, it just [about] hearing the same message from a different voice that can make a world of difference.
You've also had roles at the Abu Dhabi T10 league. Has that helped you in sussing out conditions at this T20 World Cup?
It does help. Last year's T10 was particularly bad with dew, and I think as the competition [T20 World Cup] goes on a bit, the dew will get worse. We haven't experienced any problems so far, so that's been quite good for us. We've probably played more day games here as well, when we were playing Scotland and Zimbabwe at the beginning of the year. We experienced that a little bit where we found the pitch was a little bit sticky batting first in a day game and kind of gets better as the day goes on. I thought the way we negotiated that tricky little powerplay
against Namibia was key for us to get over the line.
While most other teams are leaning towards chasing, Afghanistan have won two games batting first and could have won one another one, against Pakistan, if not for Asif Ali's fireworks
Yeah it [batting first] has worked for us, also in the past. It's not that we've got problems doing it the other way around. We haven't seen the need to do differently because of the conditions, so we've just stuck to that. We've been lucky to win the toss, so that has given us that opportunity to decide for ourselves. However, we've spent some time chatting on the fact that if we do decide to chase, or do need to chase, then be comfortable with that as well.
Your batting line-up has a lot of six-hitters, but they've soaked up plenty of dots. How do you find that balance on the batting front?
It's something that we're working on. We want to improve on that and we've identified that as a big growth point for us: we need to run better and work on rotating the strike better. But at the same time, we need to work on our strength, which is boundary-hitting. I think we were particularly good in the last couple of games - the way we rotated the strike has been a lot better compared to in the past. If we can as a team get better with that and squeeze out an extra five, six runs every innings, that's an extra win somewhere down the line.
