PESHAWAR, Oct 14: The Afghan cricket team began a tour of Pakistan Sunday hoping to be ambassadors for peace as US-led forces bomb the Taliban militia ruling their homeland.

The 16-man squad arrived here to compete in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-II Cricket Tournament.

Captain Allah Dad Noori said cricket had nothing to do with politics, but he hoped the tour would help dispel misconceptions that Afghanistan was a haven for terrorists and Islamic extremists.

“We have the sense that Afghanistan is under bombardment and attack and innocent people have been killed,” he said, shortly after his arrival from the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad which has been subjected to intense bombing.

“But we have come here to Pakistan to play cricket and show the world that we are not terrorists, that we are just ordinary people. We are the peace ambassadors for Afghanistan.”

Cricket is not generally played in Afghanistan, a country which never allowed itself to be dominated by the British when they ruled India and what is now known as Pakistan.

But the sport has a dedicated following among returned refugees who learned to play the game in camps in Pakistan during the 1979-89 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Noori said he hoped the team would compete with the more experienced Pakistani sides when the competition begins with a two-day match against Nowshera Monday.

“We don’t want to talk about politics. We came here to play cricket,” he said.—AFP