PakPassion.net was fortunate to hear from Lawson about his ambitions for the team as he gets his first glimpse of the talent at hand in the U19 Asian Cup currently being held in Malaysia.

By Haroon Khan (23rd June, 2012)

In a nation ravaged by war, sports is often seen as a sanction for hope and a healthier future, as it teaches tolerance and respect. While Afghanistan was never a part of the British Empire, its only influence to the game of cricket came from its neighbouring Pakistan in 1979 in refugee camps where cricket became a popular sport amongst the displaced Afghans. The popularity of the game via this inauspicious route, thus resulted in formation of the national side and the team has gone from strength to strength and competed gracefully in several ICC competitions.

With the highest ratio of school-age children in the world (1 in 5 according to the United Nations), it is the future breed of Afghani cricketers who with the right support and encouragement can reach even greater heights for their nation. The interim task to guide the next brigade of bright young cricketers from Afghanistan at the 2012 U19 World Cup in Australia has fallen to the former Australian fast bowler Geoff Lawson. PakPassion.net was fortunate to hear from Lawson about his ambitions for the team as he gets his first glimpse of the talent at hand in the U19 Asian Cup currently being held in Malaysia.

Lawson, whose previous coaching stints include head coach of the Pakistani national side as well as the IPL Kochi Tuskers franchise, certainly has plenty of experience with players from this part of the world. Having such a high profile coach in a major tournament is certain to boost the morale of the players as stated by Lawson “I agreed to come to the Asia Cup Under 19 tournament so I could get to know the players before they go down to Australia in August for the World Cup. It will be a real learning experience for me.”

Coaching an exciting side like Afghanistan is a tough task and this is not the first time Lawson has been approached by the Afghans for this position - “I first met the Afghanistan High Performance manager Basheer Stanekzai a couple of years ago when I was coaching in Pune for the Global Cricket School,” Lawson said. “Afghanistan had a couple of players attending the Global Cricket School camp at that time. They discussed the prospect of doing some work with their squads but unfortunately I was busy with the now defunct Kochi Tuskers IPL team and then with my radio and television commitments. I had ongoing communication with them and more than anything we struck up a friendship.”

More recently, Lawson was approached again to help but he was away in the West Indies covering the Australia-West Indies series. “I was approached to do some coaching leading into the Dubai qualifying tournament for the T20 World Cup but was in the West Indies doing television commentary.”

The Afghan U19 team did compete at the last world cup in New Zealand where they returned with little success. Lawson will be hoping for better results with the tournament being held in his home country. His knowledge of the conditions are hoped to be an added advantage for the junior Afghans. “This year the Under 19 World Cup is in Australia in August so I was available to help them out and am very happy to do so.”

The progress of Afghanistan as a cricketing nation has been well documented. Since they were granted ICC membership in 2001, they have transformed from an amateur untrained disjointed unit to seasoned professionals which are no longer easy-beats. Since 2009, they have competed in 21 ODI and recorded 12 wins. It is something that has caught the eye of Lawson. “Afghanistan have done well to reach the last T20 World Cup and of course they have qualified for the 2012 event.”

Lawson will be hoping to impart some of his international bowling knowledge, but will be wary of imparting too much influence on the raw ability of the players. “At 19 a lot of physical mechanics are in place and if they are good enough to be in a national age group team then they are doing a lot of things correctly. I would be surprised if they needed any major technical rearrangements.” Lawson remarked. As with most international squads, the players generally enter representative levels as “the finished product”, and Lawson expects nothing less from the Afghani boys. “Players at all levels are constantly tweaking bits and pieces and learning new tricks so there will definitely be a lot of that happening.”

The psychological aspect is what Lawson sees as where he will be able to guide his wards “The mentally is important. They will lack experience in competitive environments and the learning curve can be step up and the improvement significant - that’s what makes it so exciting.” Leading into the U19 Asian Cup, the Afghan U19s played some warm up matches against their senior colleagues and recorded two consecutive wins which encouraged the coach. “The fact that the under 19’s have beaten their senior team in a recent warm up match suggests that they already know a little about the psychology of winning and thus their ambitions should not be limited.”

With some concerted effort and a bit of luck, an upset or two is not completely out of the equation as Lawson said, “If they could beat an Indian or Pakistan team in this tournament it would be a huge fillip.” Afghanistan began their U19 Asian Cup campaign on Saturday with a well fought 4 wicket loss to one of the tournament favourites, Sri Lanka. They are due to meet their next and possibly easier opponent, Qatar, on the 24th June.