Sport
Three Afghans, including 2 women, chosen for Olympics Refugee Team

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Tuesday announced the names of the athletes who will represent the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in 2021 and three of them are Afghans.
The 29 athletes come from 11 countries, including Afghanistan, and were selected by the IOC’s Executive Board from an initial group of 55 IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship-holders.
“The refugee athletes are an enrichment for all of us in the entire Olympic community,” IOC President Thomas Bach said at the virtual ceremony from Lausanne.
“The reasons we created this team still exist. We have more forcibly displaced people in the world right now, and therefore it went without saying that we wanted to create an IOC Refugee Olympic Team for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics”.
“The athletes represent not only themselves, not only the IOC, but also all refugees in the world,” IOC Refugee Olympic Team Chef de Mission Tegla Loroupe added. “Let’s bring solidarity, as we are solidarity people.
“Our universal language is sport, let’s go and bring joy.”
The three hard-working Afghan refugees, including two women, are Abdullah Sediqi (Taekwondo Men’s 68kg); Masomah Ali Zada (Cycling Women’s Road) and Nigara Shaheen (Judo Women’s Mixed team).
Sediqi is based in Belgium, Zada is in France and Shaheen is in Russia.
Abdullah Sediqi
Sediqi has relied on taekwondo to get him by since he was eight years old.
In an interview with the IOC recently Sediqi said the sport, which he now practises in Belgium, has been a guiding light through difficult times, first when escaping from his home country four years ago and then again through the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was a gruelling mission, there were days I walked for 12 hours straight,” he said of his escape.
Now established in Wilrijk, a neighbourhood of Antwerp, the 24-year-old is focusing on the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games this summer in 2021.
While Sediqi is fully focussed on his dream of going to the Olympic Games, the real world provided an emotional blow to him this past year.
In a recent interview with Taekwondo Vlaanderen (Flanders Taekwondo), he revealed that he was not able to see his mother before her death from coronavirus in Afghanistan.
“My mother died of coronavirus six months ago,” he said. “Her death was difficult for me – I had not seen her since my arrival in Belgium. Suddenly, you are told she is seriously ill; a while later she was gone.
Masomah Ali Zada
For Zada, it all changed when a French TV show aired called “Les Petites Reines de Kaboul” (“The Little Queens of Kabul”).
Along with her sister Zahra, the documentary showed the difficulties of cycling as a female in her home country.
“In Afghanistan, men think it’s unsuitable for a woman to ride a bike,” said Zada to France24.
According to the IOC, after watching the programme, a retired French lawyer called Patrick Communal arranged for them to come to France on a humanitarian visa and made a successful application for asylum.
“It’s very easy for men and women here to ride a bike,” Zada said.
Both sisters are enrolled at the University of Lille and Masomah Zada has been invited on the IOC Refugee Athlete Scholarship programme.
Aged 24, she is training hard in northern France ahead of the Olympics.
“By taking part in the Olympic Games, I want to convince those who think a woman on a bicycle is inappropriate or find it strange that a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf is a cyclist that no, it’s normal,” Zada said to Paris Match.
Nigara Shaheen
Born in Afghanistan, Shaheen is a judoka competing in the under 70kg category.
She started practising judo when she was 11, living as a refugee in Peshawar, Pakistan, as practising martial arts was a family tradition.
She is studying international trade at a university in Ekaterinburg, in Russia, and is aiming to get her master’s degree.
As a member of the IJF Refugee Team, she participated in the Düsseldorf Grand Slam in 2020 and the Kazan Grand Slam in 2021.
The three Afghans will take their spots alongside the other refugee athletes for the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Games on 23 July 2021. The team will enter the brand new Japan National Stadium with the Olympic flag in second position, immediately after Greece.
The team will stay in the Olympic village, like all the other 206 National Olympic Committees taking part, and continue to receive IOC support after the Games.
For all official representations of the team (including possible medal ceremonies), the Olympic flag will be raised and the Olympic anthem will be played.
Tokyo 2020 President Hashimoto Seiko said: “The Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee welcomes the participation of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, following its debut at the Olympic Games Rio 2016.
“The participation of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team in the Tokyo 2020 Games, which will be both a festival of sport and a celebration of peace, will draw the world’s attention to the issue of refugees and further advance efforts to achieve world peace through the elimination of the wars and conflicts that cause people to flee their homeland.”
Sport
Cricket Ireland cancels Afghanistan series for ‘financial reasons’
However, in the same statement Cricket Ireland confirmed a line up of action-packed cricket this summer.

Ireland’s cricket board announced this week they have cancelled a multi-format series against Afghanistan scheduled for later this year.
Cricket Ireland said in a statement issued on Tuesday that they were cancelling the series due to “financial reasons”.
“One planned series that won’t go ahead for financial reasons is against Afghanistan.
“This decision is part of our management of short-term budgetary constraints, as well as our requirement to comply with the Board’s mandate to deliver balanced investment across the organisation’s strategic objectives,” said Warren Deutrom, Chief Executive of Cricket Ireland.
However, in the same statement Cricket Ireland confirmed a line up of action-packed cricket this summer.
West Indies will play six limited-overs matches in Ireland in May and June before England arrive in September for a three-match Twenty20 series.
In addition, Zimbabwe Women and Pakistan Women will tour Ireland in July and August respectively; and Ireland Women will compete in two ICC World Cup qualifier tournaments.
In addition to this, Ireland Wolves will head to the UAE to play Sri Lanka A and Afghanistan A as part of a multi-format tour.
Cricket Ireland added that “further fixtures and tours in 2025 will be announced in due course”.
Deutrom meanwhile said Cricket Ireland will also invest to upgrade infrastructure and facilities across the country.
The Irish government announced last August it would build a stadium at the national sports campus in Blanchardstown, which will also stage matches of the T20 World Cup in 2030, which Ireland will co-host with England and Scotland.
“All in all, on and off the pitch, in time this will be recognised as one of the more consequential years in Irish cricket history,” Deutrom added.
In response to this news, the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has clarified that the matches have not been canceled and that efforts are underway to reschedule them at a more suitable time.
Sport
Asian Cup: Afghanistan’s beach soccer team arrives in Thailand

Afghanistan’s national beach soccer team arrived in Thailand on Tuesday to participate in a training camp ahead of the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup Thailand 2025.
Afghanistan Football Federation (AFF) said in a post on Facebook that a 10-day training camp has been organized for the national beach soccer team in order for the players to enhance their skills ahead of the tournament.
The Afghan national beach soccer team is placed in Group C of the AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup 2025 alongside the beach soccer teams of Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Indonesia.
AFC Beach Soccer Asian Cup Thailand 2025 will kick off on March 20 and run through to March 30. Thailand is the official host.
Sport
India upbeat over Champions Trophy win against New Zealand
The final on Sunday in Dubai will decide the winner of the eight-nation tournament played in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

India’s Shubman Gill on Saturday said the team will look to win the Champions Trophy final against New Zealand to get over their 2023 ODI World Cup title defeat.
The final on Sunday in Dubai will decide the winner of the eight-nation tournament played in Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.
“I am quite excited,” vice-captain Gill told reporters. “My second ICC event for team India and second final. The last time which we couldn’t do, we will try to do it this time.”
India went down to Australia in the 50-over World Cup final in November 2023 on home soil in Ahmedabad in a heartbreaking defeat for the team, which had come into the title clash unbeaten, AFP reported.
However, Rohit Sharma’s team eased the heartache of fans a few months later when they lifted the 2024 T20 World Cup title — India’s first victory in a major global event since the 2013 Champions Trophy.
Gill, who was not part of the T20 triumph, said the ICC title in Barbados allows the team to go into Sunday’s final without any baggage.
“It’s also about once you get one title that kind of breaks the jinx and then it gives you the momentum and also you are not desperate about getting the title,” said Gill.
“Winning the title in 2024 doesn’t mean that we are less hungry, but it kind of gives us more balance that we have won an ICC title and we will try to do our best to win this one.”
India come into the title clash unbeaten in four matches after they went past Australia in the semi-final to eye a third Champions Trophy crown, AFP reported.
India have played all their matches in Dubai after they refused to tour hosts Pakistan due to political tensions.
Gill said the importance of a final does come into the equation when they walk out but a champion team knows how to handle pressure.
“The big-match pressure is always there,” said Gill.
“This is the reason why we talk about big teams of previous years, including West Indies and Australia. Those teams played their best cricket in knock-outs. Easier said than done, but good teams play their best cricket under pressure.”
Virat Kohli has been in top form as he hit an unbeaten 100 against arch-rivals Pakistan in a group game and hit 84 in another successful chase in the semi-final.
Rohit has been slammed for not converting his starts into bigger scores, but his quick cameos have nonetheless allowed the team to build totals.
Gill, who opens with Rohit, said India’s batting depth has allowed the top-order to bat freely.
“I think this is the best batting line-up that I have been part of,” said Gill. “Rohit, Virat, I think all-time one-day greats. Rohit one of the best openers in white-ball and Virat one of the best ODI batsman ever,” he said.
Fans across Afghanistan can tune in to watch the final live and exclusively in the country on Ariana Television. The final gets underway at 1:30pm Kabul time.
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