Afghanistan fast bowler slams Indian Cricket Team for winning gold medal at Asian Games 2023 due to higher ranking

Left-handed pacer Fareed Malik, among the ODI World Cup 2023 bound reserves for Afghanistan, is still in shock following the result at the Asian Games championship matchup with India in Hangzhou. When Afghanistan was sent to bat on Saturday at the cricket pitch at Zheijang University of Technology, they were 112 for five when the rain started to fall. After then, no further plays could be made, and India won the gold medal owing to their higher global rating.

Afghanistan had to content themselves with silver in their third straight Asian Games following 2010 and 2014 due to the no result. In Jakarta, there was no cricket in the 2018 edition.

Sharing the medal is common in multi-sport competitions as we have previously also in this century. Gianmarco Tamberi, the legendary Italian high jumper, and Mutaz Barshim, of Qatar, both cleared 2.37 metres to win gold at the Tokyo Olympics. However, unlike the Asian Games cricket final, that event was not adversely affected by the weather.

Malik, the team's 2019 World Cup captain Gulbadin Naib, as well as Sharafuddin Ashraf travelled from China together and participated in the nets on Tuesday. The in-form Rahmanullah Gurbaz was bowled with full effort by Malik, a 29-year-old Jalalabad native, who also occasionally hurried the opener.

It was nice but people in the stadium did not have a lot of knowledge: Farid Malik

Farid Malik spoke after reuniting with the Afghanistan team on Tuesday. He said,"Aadha aadha kaat dena chaiye tha (laughs). The gold should have been shared as the game was abandoned. Awarding on the basis of rankings, lets just say it wasn't ideal. Match hota to maza aata. It would have been a lot of fun."

Farid Malik spoke to PTI about playing in a new nation that is not particularly known for cricket. He said, "It was nice but people in the stadium did not have a lot of knowledge about the game. They were clapping for everything whether someone got out or when a six was hit."

Food was also a major struggle for the players in a country like China and Farid added his take on the proceedings. He said, "Nahi toh masla ho jata (it could have been an issue)."