World Twenty20 2012: England must help Afghanistan after sending them crashing down to earth Afghans are accustomed to wreckage if any people are: whole acres of their cities, let alone farmlands, have been wrecked by the succession of invaders. So now they may be tempted to view their sporting aspirations in the same bleak light, to go home to their azure skies, and give up on cricket. One is pace bowling. Whereas Bangladesh have not improved notably in 10 years because their pace bowlers if anything get slower, and Zimbabwe - another nominal Test country - are the same, Afghanistan's left-armer Shapoor Zadran, and the right-armer Dawlat Zadran, together with Hamid Hassan if he ever returns from injury, would form a penetrative pace attack. Like most Afghans, Gulbodin has known hardships beyond our ken. When he was dropped from the national side after their first overseas tour, to modest Jersey, he had mouths to feed: neither of his parents had work, his sister had hepatitis. But he was resilient, and worked on his skills and strength. Gulbodin swotted England's Graeme Swann for 16 in one over. He carted Jade Dernbach for two sixes in an over, as few have done. He walked far to the off and scooped Steve Finn for four, like the local hero Dilshan. Offside shots may not have been apparent in his 44 from 32 balls, but he has plenty on which to build. What Afghan's cricketers need to come out of these ashes is a tour of England. Their batsmen need time in the middle, in all conditions and against various types of bowling, while their pacemen also learn the longer format. A tour that pits them against minor counties, perhaps, and culminates in a three-day first-class game at Lord's against MCC, who first spotted Hassan and the allrounder Mohammad Nabi, giving Afghans a chance that never existed before.