Atif resigns as Afghan cricket chief

KABUL: Atif Mashal has resigned as chairman of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), with three-and-a-half years of his five-year term still remaining.Mashal took over the job in January 2017. He has confirmed that the Afghanistan government is assigning him another mission, which he will begin shortly.

Aziz Ullah Fazale, the former ACB vice-chairman and adviser, will replace Mashal. Fazale has been associated with Afghanistan cricket for 16 years and was among the earlier lot of players who established the game in the country. In recent years he has been involved in running the country’s domestic and regional set-up. Mashal has enjoyed a largely smooth term, its highlight coming in June 2017 when the ICC conferred Afghanistan Test status alongside Ireland. Afghanistan played their inaugural Test match in Bengaluru in June 2018.

During Mashal’s stint as chairman, Afghanistan saw considerable progress in terms of upgraded cricket infrastructure within the country, the development of a domestic structure, and, most impressively, the rapid progress of the national team - they are currently No. 8 on the ICC’s T20I rankings - above Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe - and No. 10 in ODIs. In his opening spell as ACB chairman, Mashal met with the PCB to revive broken ties by playing two friendly matches.