Afghan cricket players stretch during their training session in Peshawar, Pakistan - AP

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP):

IT MAY be more dream than realistic ambition, but the cricketers of war-torn Afghanistan are about to take the next step on their "Mission Impossible 2011" - playing the globe's best at the World Cup in three years' time.

Afghanistan kept alive their dreams of meeting the likes of Australia and India by winning the World Cricket League Division Five in May - beating hosts Jersey by two wickets in a low-scoring final - and are now preparing for the next qualifying stage.

From October 4-11, the young Afghans will compete in WCL Division Four against Hong Kong, Italy, Fiji, hosts Tanzania and Jersey. The top two finishers will progress to a six-team WCL Division Three in Argentina in January.

Top two sides

From there, the top two sides will join a further 10 countries in the United Arab Emirates to play off for four berths alongside cricket's elite at the 2011 World Cup, to be jointly hosted by Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

"Lots of people in Afghanistan are closely following our journey toward the World Cup and hopefully we will not disappoint them," says Bashir Stanekzai, general manager of the team.

"That's a long way, but we are moving in the right direction."

There is one national cricket academy in the capital, Kabul, but the Afghan players have decamped from the strife-torn nation to the relative calm of Peshawar in Pakistan to get some competitive games under their belts before travelling to Tanzania.

"We have good academy in Kabul, but the problem was we could not get tough matches like we'll be getting in Peshawar to train ourselves for the tournament in Tanzania," Stanekzai said.

A 13-day tour to Peshawar was organised in collaboration with the Pakistan Cricket Board, during which Afghanistan will play four practice matches.

Playing against the likes of Pakistan Test players Yasir Hameed and Wajahatullah Wasti will test the capabilities and boost the morale of an Afghan team led by opening batsman Nauroz Khan Mangal.

They are coached by former Pakistan Test paceman Kabir Khan, who is concentrating on toughening the players psychologically for the stiff competition ahead.

"I only have 15 days to work with the team before the start of the tournament, which is probably not enough," the 34-year-old Khan said.

"They don't need a lot of coaching cricketing wise - they just need help with the mental side of the game."

Mental fine-tuning

Stanekzai agreed with the need for mental fine-tuning, noting his side's difficulties in pursuing targets.

"The standard of bowling and fielding is excellent, but sometimes the batting lets us down as we lost eight wickets in the final against Jersey while chasing just 81 runs," Khan said.

After the low-scoring final in Jersey, Afghanistan crashed to a semi-final defeat in the ACC Trophy Elite 2008 against Hong Kong. They crumbled to 129 all out off just 43.4 overs, 25 runs short of their target.

"We need to use all the 50 overs, as we have a very good bowling attack, and if we get a score of 230 on the board we will be hard to beat," Khan said.

Confidence in the camp is high and Khan has a belief in the ability of his players.

"The team has the potential to be promoted. I was the national coach of the UAE and I don't see any difference in standard between our team and players who played in the World Cricket League Division Two and the Intercontinental Cup," he said.

Although the focus of the side, who will look to the likes of fast bowler Habid Hassan to star, will be on making it through to Division Three, Khan believes that if Afghanistan progress they have the potential to do well in the next stages of the competition as well.

"If we qualify for the next stage I hope the team will do well in that event as well," Khan said.

"Talent wise we are very good. I have seen a lot of players who have played Division Two and Division Three cricket and this is the most talented side I have seen."

Afghanistan will begin their campaign against Fiji on October 4, with crunch games likely to be against Hong Kong and Italy on October 8 and 9 respectively.