‘Simply lovely’

In most other sports, particularly rugby or football, so many men in the one hotel could have led to anarchy; excess drinking and rowdy nights that might continue until 3 or 4 in the morning.

But no. For between them the 260 players, coaches and managers made such a good impression that head receptionist Fiona Wilson told me: ‘They were very careful where they put down their kit bags, they weren’t rowdy and for most of the time you wouldn’t have known they were there. They were simply lovely.’

‘Simply lovely’ are not words that you would normally associate with lads away on tour.

Meanwhile, talking to one of the officials midway through the week I was told that Vanuatu, who finished 12th and last, had taken 45 hours to reach Jersey from their island archipelago, over 1,000 miles east of Northern Australia in the South Pacific, only to be told within 48 hours of arriving that their second game had been called off because of the weather.

The Americans, who finished fourth in the tournament having lost to Jersey and then to Nepal, faced a no-win situation from the first ball they bowled. ‘Back home we’re expected to win every game, because we’ve never been as low as the 5th division,’ said their coach, former West Indian Test player Clayton Lambert. ‘Anything less than finishing first won’t even be reported.’ – This, from a nation with 15,000 players and 62 affiliated clubs.

Then there were the gentlemen of cricket; the Botswana players who, after every lunchtime break, took their dirty plates to the sink and offered to wash them and wouldn’t get onto the bus until they had tidied up all of the rubbish in their changing rooms.

And, finally, back to the Afghans. During the tournament there were over a million ‘hits’ on the internet – most, apparently, coming from Afghanistan and, in particular, Kabul. For as Malik Alim said, in between answering innumerable calls on his mobile as I talked to him during the last Afghan innings of a truly remarkable festival of sport: ‘We HAVE to go back home with the cup. I’ve promised the whole of Afghanistan we’ll take it home with us. If we win this tournament, it means we are the best country in Division V. And, if we win, that also means I’m the best coach of all the other coaches in this division.’