The Afghanistan team stood side by side, arms around each other, eyes shut, belting out every word of their national anthem.
Mohammad Nabi won the toss, and the 20,000 or so people in the crowd groaned.
They wanted to see Australia bat, they wanted records to fall, they wanted sixes, they wanted David Warner and The Big Show and Steve Smith and James Faulkner. And they wanted at least 50 overs.
Nabi chose to field.
Two hours and 417 runs later this same group of players trudged off the WACA. The punters were happy but the minnows were crushed.
The WACA is arguably the most difficult pitch to play on. It is quintessentially Western Australian. It is unlike any other pitch in the world, a juxtaposition of hardness, moisture, unpredictability and predictability. It is the fastest pitch in the world at 10am and by 2pm, when the legendary Fremantle Doctor comes in, it can become the most dangerous.
The best teams have played at the WACA and lost. Australia plays at the WACA each summer and more often than not they struggle to tame it.
The WACA pitch is the most un-Middle Eastern pitch on Earth.
Afghanistan and UAE played Australia and India, the number one and number two ODI teams, at the WACA. UAE were bowled out for 102 runs, Afghanistan for 142.
When the fixture of the tournament was being deliberated, you wonder what the ICC were thinking sending two of the associate teams to face cricket’s giants in conditions unlike anything they’ve experienced before.
The fixture even forced Australia to hop on an eight-hour flight from Auckland to Perth.
The truth is the ICC don’t really want the associate teams in the World Cup. David Richardson has already said that 2019 World Cup will only have 10 teams playing, made up of the top eight-ranked teams and the last two positions made up of associate teams to qualify via the World Cricket League.
Sachin Tendulkar has said there should be a 25-team World Cup, where developing the game is the highest priority. He watched as his own country dismantled a team whose country has unmatched sporting facilities, money and wealth, but has provided their own cricket team with little of any.
Tendulkar believes the top countries ‘A’ teams should be sent to the associates to play, rather than have them developing against the other associate teams. This will fast track the growth of the associate nations, and better equip them when they’re in the World Cup.
If the ICC has their way though, they may never get there. The games in Perth showed UAE and Afghanistan were way out of their depth, and the ICC will use this as evidence the associates shouldn’t be a part of the World Cup.
But no team should be judged on their performance at the WACA, especially not two teams from conditions so foreign to their own. After all, the best lose here and they’re still in the World Cup.
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