AOPNEWS | February 8, 2016

Afghan rugby team to compete in tournament

Afghanistan’s national rugby team will participate in the upcoming Asian Development Sevens Tournament, which will start on February 26th in Al-Ain, United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Sevens is a type of rugby in which only 7 players, instead of the usual 15, play in a shorter amount of time. Besides Afghanistan, Chinese Taipei, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Phillipines, Qatar, Syria, Thailand, and host country United Arab Emirates will be participating in the event, which is being hosted by the UAE Rugby Federation. The winner of this tournament will secure a place to participate in the Asia Rugby Sevens Series, scheduled to be held in September 2016.

Afghanistan’s U19 cricket team to take on New Zealand

Afghanistan will face off against New Zealand for a ICC U19 (Under 19) World Cup 9th place play-off semi final match tomorrow February 9th (09:00 local time). Unfortunately, Afghanistan’s U19 team has been not played well in the World Cup; out of 3 matches, they have managed to only win one match (against Canada by 4 wickets). Tomorrow’s match will be held at Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh.

Afghanistan at the 12th South Asian Games

Meanwhile in India, at the 12th South Asian Games, Afghanistan’s overall medal count has gone up to 7 – two silver and 5 bronze. All medals have so far been in wrestling. Host country India leads in overall medal and gold count (79/53), followed by Sri Lanka (61/11). A total of 8 countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) are participating in 23 sports in the South Asian Games; the event is scheduled to end on February 16th.