Former Afghanistan skipper Asghar Afghan, who announced his retirement from the game yesterday was given a guard of honour by both Namibia and Afghanistan on Sunday, 31 October. Both the spectators present at the ground and his teammates left nothing to chance in giving him earnest respect.
He was given a guard of honour on two occasions—at the time of entering the ground for batting and while leaving the playing field for the one last time on Sunday afternoon. First, the Namibian side gave him the honour while he came out to bat in the middle and his teammates were the ones to give him an emotional farewell on his way back to the pavilion.
Asghar could not hold himself back and get emotional on the sense of the occasion. He was asked to explain his decision to retire from the game midway through the T20 World Cup and he got in tears while struggling to explain his mind.
Asghar has been one of the chief reasons for the rise of Afghanistan cricket on the world stage. He made his international debut in the year 2004 and has seen their rapid rise from Division 5 in 2008 to qualifying for the 50-over World Cup in 2015 and attaining Full Member status in 2018.
He has captained Afghanistan in 115 matches across formats and was the leader of the side in their maiden Test match against India. He has won 42 T20 internationals as the skipper out of 52 matches. As a batsman, he is one of the few batsmen to have scored a century in both ODIs and Tests from the Afghanistan side.