Afghanistan's that is.

Remember when I talked about the World Cricket Leagues and explained the process that led to qualification for the ICC World Cup.

And remember when Sledge talked about the progress that Afghanistan had made in the World Cricket Leagues.

I don't hold it against you if you don't.

Well the Qualification process has reached Division 3 now where the winners of Division 4 join Argentina, Cayman Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda.

The only thing I knew about the Cayman Islands was that it was a popular place to register companies and funds due to some tax exempt or something.

They play cricket as well. Thats amazing.

The team from Division 4 that is joining them is none other than Afghanistan.

Damn lucky those Afghanis are for travelling to Buenos Aires.

Thats where Division 3 of the World Cricket League will kick off later this month.

I want to go to Buenos Aires. Its beautiful I hear.

And its hosting a cricket tournament. Wow!

In Argentina. That used to be my favorite soccer team.

Loved Maradona before he became soccer's own Mohammad Asif.

I wonder if Maradona has ordered some special stuff through the Afghans. You don't get better than that.

Ask Asif!

And you don't get a better associate nation than Afghanistan.

Ask any Division 5 and Division 4 associate nation!

Afghanistan have marched into Division 3 of the World Cricket League by winning both the previous divisions.

Afghanistan have lost only 1 World Cricket League match on their way to Division 3 where they are up against Argentina, Papua New Guinea, Uganda, and the Cayman Islands.

From what I hear about the Afghani cricketers, I would be surprised if they don't win Division 3 as well.

The top 2 teams from Division 3 will join Division 1 and 2 for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers that will be held this year.

I believe, we can count the Afghanis to be there for the qualifiers.

Thats where they will be up against the best: UAE, Namibia, Kenya, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, Bermuda, Oman, and Denmark.

Currently the Afghanistan cricket team is in Lahore practicing at the National Cricket Academy.

They are receiving valuable tips from Aqib Javed, Ijaz Ahmed, and Rashid Latif.

Besides the practice facilities, they are also playing some practice matches against Pakisani domestic sides.

Valuable experience this for the Afghan cricketers.

If you want an idea of what kind of team Afghanistan might be - i'd say imagine a team with 11 Shahid Afridis.

On there day, they can demolish anyone. Here are scorecards of the Division 4 and Division 5 finals.

I thought Hitler had shot the entire team down after they had drawn a game of cricket that they had been playing for 5 days. And since then no one played cricket in Germany again.

That ain't true though as Germany begins its campaign for the 2011 ICC World Cup today.

I didn't know that the qualification process for the Cricket World Cup inolved several structured leagues.

I knew about the qualifiers for the associate nations, but there are a few tournaments held for teams to qualify for the qualifiers.

Qualifying for the Qualifiers. Interesting that.

Apparently there are 5 leagues known as the ICC World Cricket Leagues.

Let start from the bottom.

World Cricket League Division 5 kicks off this week with a tournament in Jersey. The Participating teams are:

Afghanistan, Bahamas, Botswana, Germany, Japan, Jersey, Mozambique, Nepal, Norway, Singapore, USA, and Vanuatu.

I didn't even know that there is a country called Vanuatu, let alone the fact that it played cricket. I guess USA vs Japan will be an intensely contested match.

The 2 finalists of this tournament will then qualify for the World Cricket League Divison 4, which includes Fiji, Honk Kong, Italy, and Tanzania.

Italy?

Remind me this is not soccer I'm talking about. The Italians playing cricket? Amazing. Seriously. They must be really good at sledging. I wonder why the French don't play.

The top 2 teams from the Division 4 tournament will then qualify for the World Cricket League Division 3, where they join Argentina, Cayman Islands, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda.

This is getting bigger than Soccer I tell you. Germany, Italy, and now Argentina! The French are still missing though.

The top 2 teams from Division 3 qualify for the ICC World Cup Qualifiers that will be held in 2009.

10 teams have already qualified for the 2009 ICC World Cup Qualifiers. These are the 6 teams that are part of the World Cricket League Division 1 and the 4 teams of the World Cricket League Division 2.

World Cricket League Division 1: Kenya, Scotland, Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, Bermuda
World Cricket League Division 2: UAE, Oman, Namibia, Denmark

Actually Uganda and Argentina were part of Division 2 but since they were the bottom 2 they got relegated to Division 3 and still stand a chance to play in the World Cup Qualifiers.

But where are the French? And the Chinese?

If they don't play cricket where did the term "French Cricket" come from? And the "Chinese Cut"?

(Source: Cricinfo, Wikipeda)