Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Kabul (BNA) Australia’s Governor-General Peter Cosgrove has labelled Afghanistan the “fairy-tale nation” of the cricket World Cup and coach Andy Moles just hopes his side doesn’t “freeze” in its first visit to the tournament.
The team met Cosgrove on Sunday night and he told the team that plenty of Australians would get behind the World Cup minnows. As their first time in the tournament, Moles conceded there was a chance Afghanistan could “freeze in the headlights”, but it helped playing against Bangladesh – a team they know well, having beaten them in Bangladesh at last year’s Asia Cup.
Moles said about 20 busloads of Afghans were travelling from Sydney for the game.
“We are confident that we can win.
We’re not confident that we’re going to win, we’re confident we can win,” he said.
“We’ve got full respect for Bangladesh as a full member side, but we’re not scared of them.
“It is a danger the guys will freeze in the headlights, but at the moment they’re relaxed.
“The Governor-General last night was telling us that a lot of the Australians are behind the Afghan side because they’re the fairy-tale nation and everybody loves to watch their game.”
