Mohammed Zahir Shah was the last King of Afghanistan, reigning from 8 November 1933 until he was deposed on 17 July 1973. He expanded Afghanistan's diplomatic relations with many countries, including with both Cold War sides. In the 1950s, Zahir Shah began modernizing the country in line with Turkey. His long reign was marked by peace and stability that was lost afterwards.
The Soviet–Afghan War lasted over nine years, from December 1979 to February 1989. Insurgent groups known collectively as the mujahideen, as well as smaller Maoist groups, fought a guerrilla war against the Soviet Army and the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan government, mostly in the rural countryside. The mujahideen groups were backed primarily by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, making it a Cold War proxy war. Between 562,000 and 2,000,000 civilians were killed and millions of Afghans fled the country as refugees, mostly to Pakistan and Iran.
Mullah Mohammed Omar, widely known as Mullah Omar, was an Afghan mujahideen commander who founded the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in 1996.The Taliban recognized him as the Commander of the Faithful or the Supreme Leader of the Muslims until being succeeded by Mullah Akhtar Mansour in 2015. Some sources described Mullah Omar as "Head of the Supreme Council of Afghanistan". The Supreme Council was initially established at Kandahar in 1994.
The Afghanistan national football team is the national football team of Afghanistan and is controlled by the Afghanistan Football Federation. Founded in 1922, they played their first international game against Iran in Kabul, 1941. Afghanistan then joined FIFA in 1948 and the AFC in 1954, as one of the founding members. They play their home games at the Ghazi National Olympic Stadium in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. In 2013, Afghanistan won the 2013 SAFF Championship and earned the "FIFA Fair Play Award".
The Afghanistan men's national team is the 12th test cricket playing Full Member nation. Cricket has been played in Afghanistan since the mid 19th century, but it is only in recent years that the national team has become successful. The Afghanistan Cricket Board was formed in 1995 and became an affiliate member of the International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2001 and a member of the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) in 2003.
The Taliban insurgency began shortly after the group's fall from power following the 2001 War in Afghanistan. The Taliban forces are fighting against the Afghan government, formerly led by President Hamid Karzai, now led by President Ashraf Ghani, and against the US-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF). The insurgency has spread to some degree over the Durand Line border to neighboring Pakistan, in particular the Waziristan region and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The Taliban conduct low-intensity warfare against Afghan National Security Forces and their NATO allies. Regional countries, particularly Pakistan, Iran, China and Russia, are often accused of funding and supporting the insurgent groups.
The 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup was the 12th Cricket World Cup, a quadrennial, One Day International cricket tournament contested by men's national teams and organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). It was hosted by England and Wales, making it the fifth time England has hosted the World Cup, beginning on 30 May and ending with the final on 14 July. The final was played at Lord's in London, where England beat New Zealand on boundary count after both the match and the subsequent Super Over finished as ties.
Since 1949, a series of armed skirmishes and firefights have occurred along the Durand Line between the Afghan National Security Forces and the Pakistan Armed Forces. The latest hostilities, which are ongoing, began with the overthrow of the Taliban government.
The War in Afghanistan, code named Operation Enduring Freedom (2001–14) and Operation Freedom's Sentinel (2015–present), followed the United States invasion of Afghanistan of 7 October 2001, when the United States of America and its allies successfully drove the Taliban from power in order to deny al-Qaeda a safe base of operations in Afghanistan. Since the initial objectives were completed, a coalition of over 40 countries formed a security mission in the country. The war has since mostly involved US and allied Afghan government troops battling Taliban insurgents. The war in Afghanistan is the longest war in US history. This war was entered into without any forward planning or thought of long term stabilisation of Afghanistan.
Mohammad Nabi is an Afghan cricketer who has captained the side in limited overs matches. Nabi is an all-rounder, playing as a right-handed batsman and off break bowler. He played a major role in Afghanistan's rise to the top level of international cricket, playing in both their first One Day International in April 2009 and their first Test match in June 2018. He captained the side during their first appearances in the 2014 Asia Cup and the 2015 Cricket World Cup. Nabi has also played in numerous Twenty20 franchise tournaments and was the first player from Afghanistan to be selected in the Indian Premier League player auction. In September 2019, he announced his retirement from Test cricket to prolong his limited overs cricket career.
Rahmat Shah Zurmatai is an Afghan cricketer who bats right-handed and bowls part-time leg-breaks and googly. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against India, in June 2018. In April 2019, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) named Shah as the team's new Test captain, replacing Asghar Afghan. However, following the 2019 Cricket World Cup, Rashid Khan was named as the new captain of the Afghanistan cricket team across all three formats. Therefore, Rahmat was replaced before captaining the team in a Test match. In September 2019, in the one-off Test between Afghanistan and Bangladesh, Rahmat became the first batsman for Afghanistan to score a century in Test cricket.
Resolute Support Mission or Operation Resolute Support is a NATO-led train, advise and assist mission consisting of over 17,000 troops in Afghanistan, which began on January 1, 2015. It is a follow-on mission to the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) which was completed on December 28, 2014. Its current commander is U.S. Army General Austin S. Miller who replaced U.S. Army General John W. Nicholson Jr. on 2 September 2018.
Rashid Khan Arman, commonly known as Rashid Khan, is an Afghan cricketer and the current captain of the national team. He was one of the eleven cricketers to play in Afghanistan's first ever Test match, against India, in June 2018. He returned the most expensive bowling figures by a debutant in a nation's maiden Test match. In September 2019, he led the team in the one-off Test against Bangladesh, and at the age of 20 years and 350 days, became the youngest cricketer to captain a Test match side.
The 2019–20 Bangladesh Tri-Nation Series is a cricket tournament that is currently taking place in September 2019. It is a tri-nation series between Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Zimbabwe with all the matches being played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is).
Events from the year 2019 in Afghanistan.
The Afghanistan cricket team are scheduled to play the West Indies cricket team in India in November and December 2019 to play one Test, three One Day Internationals (ODIs) and three Twenty20 International (T20I) matches. It will be the first Test match that Afghanistan will play against the West Indies. The two teams have played each other ten times before, with the majority of matches in the Caribbean, with this being Afghanistan's third Test match.
The Afghanistan cricket team toured Bangladesh to play the Bangladesh cricket team in September 2019 in a one-off Test match. The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) confirmed the schedule for the tour in August 2019.
On 1 July 2019, a combined gun and bomb attack took place in the Wazir Akbar Khan neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan. The attackers initially detonated a bomb-laden truck, after which five gunmen entered a nearby building under construction and fired on Afghan security personnel evacuating people onto the street. At least forty five were killed, including the five attackers. The spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Public Health, Wahidullah Mayar, said that 116 civilians, including 26 children and 5 women, were wounded. The Taliban claimed the responsibility for the bomb attack in Kabul and said although civilians were not the Taliban target, some were injured.
