Pick-up cricket

Internally displaced Afghan children play cricket outside their tent at a refugee camp in Kabul on February 14, 2012. Cricket has become the top sport in the war-ravaged country in the last three years after it was introduced by youths who learned the game in refugee camps in <a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="PLGEO00000020" title="Pakistan" href="/topic/intl/pakistan-PLGEO00000020.topic">Pakistan</a> following the Soviet invasion of their country in 1979. Under the <a class="taxInlineTagLink" id="ORCIG00001549" title="Taliban" href="/topic/politics/government/taliban-ORCIG00001549.topic">Taliban</a> regime no outdoor sport was allowed and grounds were primarily used for executing political opponents who defied the hardliners. But since the ouster of the Taliban, following the war on terror led by the United States in 2001, cricket has taken root with Afghanistan winning one-day status in 2009.

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( SHAH MARAI, AFP/Getty Images / February 14, 2012 )

Internally displaced Afghan children play cricket outside their tent at a refugee camp in Kabul on February 14, 2012. Cricket has become the top sport in the war-ravaged country in the last three years after it was introduced by youths who learned the game in refugee camps in Pakistan following the Soviet invasion of their country in 1979. Under the Taliban regime no outdoor sport was allowed and grounds were primarily used for executing political opponents who defied the hardliners. But since the ouster of the Taliban, following the war on terror led by the United States in 2001, cricket has taken root with Afghanistan winning one-day status in 2009.

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