Afghanistan lost to Bangladesh and Nepal in the qualifying stages and failed to reach the Super-10 group stage of the World Twenty20 held in Bangladesh. PHOTO: AFP/FILE
Aamir Sohail will help the batsmen while Rashid Latif will help the wicket-keepers as the minnows begin tuning up for the 2015 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
"We have a full year of events starting with the Asian Cricket Council Trophy next month and the excitement will reach the highest point with the World Cup, and we have planned a two-week camp in Karachi from April 15," Afghan coach Kabir Khan told AFP.
Afghanistan have taken big strides at the international level since gaining one-day status in 2009.
They have featured in three World Twenty20 (2010, 2012 and 2014) tournaments and qualified for next year's World Cup.
The International Cricket Council has announced $1 million for each of the four World Cup qualifiers -- Afghanistan, United Arab Emirates, Ireland and Scotland -- and have also arranged their camps in Australia and New Zealand in September-October this year.
"We had a few good results in the Asia Cup where we beat the hosts Bangladesh," said Khan of his team's success in the event held in March this year.
"But our batsmen did not handle pressure well in the World Twenty20."
Afghanistan lost to Bangladesh and Nepal in the qualifying stages and failed to reach the Super-10 group stage of the World Twenty20 held in Bangladesh.
Afghanistan are in Group A of the World Cup 2015 along with hosts Australia, New Zealand, Scotland, Bangladesh, England and Sri Lanka.
They open their World Cup campaign with a match against Bangladesh in Canberra on February 18.
Sohail said he was looking forward to coaching Afghanistan.
"It will definitely be fun to coach the exciting players from Afghanistan and I will try to make them competitive enough to play against world's best teams next year," Sohail told AFP.
Latif, who served as Afghanistan coach in 2009 and 2010, said he was eagerly anticipating the role.
"I enjoyed their coaching before and look forward to help(ing) them in the coming weeks," said Latif, under whom Afghanistan won a silver medal in the 2010 Asian Games in China.
Afghanistan will also feature in this year's Asian Games cricket event in Incheon, South Korea.
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the problem is not training them, as mentioned by others that it could bring international cricket to Pakistan, Pakistanis already provide coaching to other teams as well as brings funds to Pakistan... The problem is around when they get upto speed, we get stabbed in the back... Plenty of examples - Bangladesh cricket, Afghans in general curse Pakistan even though majority of them have Pakistani Passports and enter Pakistan through them etc.. maybe Pakistan needs to work on PR in other countries to highlight our contributions...
Nothing wrong with this at all, Afghanistan will improve because it seems like they have talent just not using there brains when playing it shows, some players are thick like the our Pakistani players, it seems like our good ex Pakistani cricketers are coaching everywhere but just not in Pakistan, Mushtaq Ahmed coaching England, Saqlain Mushtaq coaching West indies & now these two coaching Afghans, we need to bring Javad miandad or Yousaf to help our clowns with batting
Pakistan should play ODI's and/ or T20's with the Afghan team in Pakistan. They are unlikely to have the problems that other teams have. This would serve as a confidence building exercise and may eventually lead to the return of full fledged international cricket in Pakistan.
@Farhan: ICC supports Pak's efforts for Afghan Cricket, Pakistan gets its due share in of funds for that plus it is good that we train as much Afghans in every sphere of life, be far sighted enough.
regards,
Why? don't we have enough Afgran (refugees) already?
Why in Pakistan? They have their own country, they can train there. We are already paying heavily for being their host and they are not even thankful for that. Like Bangladesh, after gaining test status they'll back stab us.