On the day that England play Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup, we look back to the day that the Afghan national cricket team visited Billericay for the first time, to play Essex’s 2nd XI at Billericay Cricket Club.

Click here to listen again to the interview:

This little bit of local sporting history took place on 20 June 2006 and Phoenix FM’s erstwhile roving sports presenter, Daniel Beale, was there to interview both the Afghanistan coach and General Secretary of the Afghan Cricket Federation, Taj Malik Alam, and Essex 2nd XI’s coach, former player and England international Paul Grayson.

Afghans have been playing the game since around 1992, originally learning their skills in the vast refugee camps of Pakistan. The Taliban regime once banned it, apparently because they thought it was an American game. When the Taliban regime fell in 2001, hundreds of enthusiasts came home and brought the game with them. Since then, cricket has boomed. The game is played all around the country – all 29 provinces have a team. Only buskashi – a polo-like game played with a dead goat – and football are more popular than cricket.

Afghanistan were on a tour of England and one of the games pitted them against a very strong Essex 2nd XI, which had nine players with first team experience. The two teams battled it out over 40 overs. Despite a challenging total of 238-9 from 40 overs, including a rapid 96 off 71 balls by Graham Napier, Afghanistan overcame the target with 5 balls to spare, scoring 242-9. Top scorer was Mohammad Nabi Eisakhil who made 104 not out from just 79 balls.