Hawks from White Mountains

Abahani, Mohammedan and East Bengal are very popular names for fans in this part of the world. Even Solid FC or Karachi Electric FC, the two football clubs from Sri Lanka and Pakistan, are not names hard to understand for fans. But there is another team taking part in the on-going Sheikh Kamal International Club Cup in Chittagong. They are the defending Afghanistan Premier League champions.

And the name of the club is De Spin Ghar Bazan. It's not only hard to pronounce but leaves someone guessing what it actually stands for. However, by the time you google it and understand the meaning you will be more curious to learn about the footballers from the Hindukush mountain range.

They are The (De) White Mountain (Spinghar) Hawk (Bazan). The booters from Kabul were understandably sporting all-whites while training at the Dampara Police Line Ground in the port city yesterday. And they were just waiting on the wings to prove how good hawks they are for today's opening match against traditional powerhouse Mohammedan Sporting Club.     

Although any sporting team from Afghanistan traveling to any part of the world always confronts the obvious question of what challenges they are facing in a war ravaged country, where militants attacked a volleyball match, killing nine people last month. But despite all those threats the Spin Ghar players, who are very excited to feature in their first international assignment outside the country, feel that the Afghan capital is relatively safe for football and other sports.

 “The situation in Kabul is very safe. There is no attack or suicide-bombing in football fields even though there have been attacks on volleyball matches two times outside Kabul and a lot of people died. The government is supporting the country's football and paying attention to increase the quality of football, which is believed to be doing something for the nation and bringing our people together,” said Spin Ghar team's doctor-cum-manager Behram Siddique during the practice session.

“After winning the SAFF Championship, the popularity of football in Afghanistan has increased but there are only six football grounds in Kabul where a lot of clubs have been practising,” Behram said.

A team from Afghanistan's eastern part of the Hindukush Mountain across the Pakistan border, Spin Ghar is one of the eight premier league teams. They are also from a place that is covered by snow most of the year.

Growing up in a tough environment, the players of Spin Ghar are determined to do something special in their first-ever international assignment.

“Our premier league triumph was the reward for a lot of hard work and we want to continue the hard work to produce some good results in Bangladesh,” said captain Ghulam Hazrat Niazi, who had previously visited Chittagong as a member of the Afghanistan under-23 team during the South Asian Games in 2010. He also represented the senior Afghanistan team in the 2011 SAFF Championship in India.