Sport is considered a very powerful medium of expression and the same was on display when the Afghanistan and India players took the field for their national anthems just ahead of their World Cup clash at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Wednesday, October 11.
Both Afghan and Indian players observed a two-minute silence to mourn the demise of more than 2000 people who tragically passed away in the western provinces (Herat, Farah and Badghis) of Afghanistan on Saturday, October 7.
The Afghan players stepped on the field while wearing black armbands to pay homage to the people who sadly passed away in the incident. Significantly, Afghanistan was yet again ravaged by another earthquake in the wee hours of Wednesday. Measuring 6.3 magnitude on the Richter scale, it took place 17 miles away from Herat as per the US Geological Survey.
Afghanistan's star leg spinner Rashid Khan has announced that he will donate his entire match fee of the ongoing World Cup towards the relief of the survivors of the tragic incident and the 25-year-old cricketer is also involved in a fundraiser aimed at aggregating 100,000 USD to ensure "immediate relief and support to the surviving of this catastrophic disaster".
Meanwhile, Afghanistan's World Cup campaign got off to a poor start after they lost to the Shakib Al Hasan-led Bangladesh in a one-sided contest at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. Batting first Afghanistan could only manage 156 on a beautiful batting deck and it took the Bangla Tigers just 34.4 overs to scale the target. Bangladesh got there with six wickets to spare and jolted Afghanistan's hopes of doing well in the marquee tournament early.
If Afghanistan go on to lose the contest against India then they will become the third side in the tournament to suffer two consecutive losses alongside the Netherlands and Sri Lanka.
