Last week when Mohd Daood made a phone call from Delhi to his uncle in Jalalabad, east Afghanistan, his uncle told him he was too busy to talk as he was watching an IPL game between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Gujarat Lions."My uncle sells motorcycle spares, he is no cricket fan. But he was glued to cable TV because Rashid Khan was playing. My uncle told me later: ‘In logon ne Rashid ko nahi kharida, poore Afghanistan ke logon ke dilon ko kharida hai (They haven’t just purchased Rashid. They have won the hearts of all of Afghanistan),’" says Daood, a 42-year-old moneychanger in south Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar.In a country where a bomb can explode just about anywhere and anytime, the meteoric rise of Afghan cricket is one of the most romantic stories in the world of sport today. From Kabul to Jalalabad to Mazaar-e-Sharif, cricket has become a balm for the grieving soul, an avenue of upward mobility, a source of national pride. "After so many decades of war, any other nation would have sunk into despondency. Par hum zindadil log hain (We are lively people)," he says.In July, Afghanistan are set for an historic first match at Lord’s when they will take on a MCC side led by former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum. But their current source of joy is IPL’s first Afghan star Rashid Khan Arman . The 18-year-old leg spinner has unerring accuracy and a sly googly that even the best – Brendon McCullum, Aaron Finch, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma – can’t decipher. David Warner, skipper of the Sunrisers team for which Rashid plays, describes him as a "superstar in the making".Incidentally, Rashid was born in Nangarhar province where the US dropped "the mother" of all non-nuclear bombs on Thursday. Faisal Nazarkhen, a 26-year-old doing his masters in public administration in Noida, is a big fan. "Afghans have always been watching IPL. But with Rashid, the number has doubled. Even women are watching IPL now," says Faisal.Besides students like Faisal, India is home to over 11,000 Afghan refugees and asylum seekers. For many of them, Lajpat Nagar is either a home in exile or a transit point to the West. Some parts of its bustling market have the feel of a little Kabul with dozens of Afghan-owned travel agencies, pharmacies and grocery stores. Afghan eateries in the area screen every IPL match, and gather quite a crowd.Some Afghans make the trek to Greater Noida to watch their team play. The sprawling suburb is to Afghanistan now what Dubai has been to Pakistan for some time: a home ground away from home. It also has a big contingent of Afghan students who study in universities here. "I have often watched my team play," says Nazarkhen.Daood hasn’t as yet; business is good and he cannot find time to travel 50km to Greater Noida. "But I want to say one thing: Bahut bahut shukriya Hindustan for giving us a stadium to play in Greater Noida," says Daood, showing snapshots of Rashid on his Facebook page. In one of the games against Ireland played in Greater Noida, Rashid had taken six wickets. It was performances like these in the past one year that prompted SRH to pay an eye-poppingRs 4 crore for the Afghan lad. Useful money for his family of four brothers and seven sisters.Mohd Tariq, a doctor from Jalalabad currently visiting India as a tourist, speaks glowingly of two other cricketers — Afghanistan captain and batsman Asghar Stanikzai, and all-rounder Mohd Nabi. The latter was snapped up by SRH for Rs 30 lakh. "Given a chance, he can do well too. Everybody is following the game eagerly in Kabul," says Tariq.It isn’t that all Afghans are SRH supporters. Student Sajawal Khan, from Jalalabad, says many of them back Kolkata Knight Riders. "That’s because we are all fans of King Khan. We support both KKR and SRH now," says Sajawal. Daood, too, is a fan of Shah Rukh and Rashid. But his perspective on the game goes beyond entertainment. It’s almost philosophical. For him, cricket brings discipline, promotes peace and brings a sliver of hope in a strife-torn nation. "Cricket also heals," he says.