espnstar.com's Rajarshi Gupta spoke to Afghanistan cricket coach Kabir Khan on the frenzy of the game in the country.

A former Pakistan speedster, Kabir revealed cricket is fast becoming a craze in Afghanistan.

"Afghanistan is becoming a cricket crazy nation. With India and Pakistan as neighbours, people there get to watch a lot of cricket on TV."

Kabir said he was well aware of the pressure that international cricket brings but then it encompassed deep in all levels of the game.

"Look, the pressure is static. It just keeps changing as the demand of the nation increases."

Afghanistan are knocking on the doors of international cricket and they might well be rubbing shoulders with the best in the world even if they finish in the top six in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers that are currently being played out in South Africa.

"We are approaching something very speical. The boys are aware that if they finish in the top four, they would be able to play in the World Cup in 2011 and a top six finish would help them play ODI's for the next one year."

Kabir said the ICC have gone out of their way to help developing cricketing nations and that has now shown in the quality of cricket.

"The ICC have been very generous and so have been the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). The Sri Lankan Cricket Board, the BCCI and the PCB have also supported us a lot", said Kabir.

"I am very happy with all the support we have received."

The Afghanistan team, which had a secret camp in Pakistan before setting off for South African shores, drew some priceless insights into the game from former Pakistani starts Rashid Latif, Ijaz Ahmed and Aqib Javed.

"Javed Miandad also offered to come but the Lahore terror attacks played spoilsport."

In fact, the team was scheduled to base out of Lahore but the terror attacks forced the team to retreat to Peshawar.

Kabir also emphasised the need for his boys to hone their games according to their strengths.

"For instance, each player has a different role model. I try and show them video tapes of their idols and and then they know what to do to develop their games."

The boys are in the big league already as Kabir pointed out.

"We were in the same hotel as the Australian and South African teams (which had assembled to play the second Twenty20 International of the series) and the boys went up to speak to the stars."

"All of them were very helpful and welcomed us very warmly."

History is calling and the world might just welcome another Asian giant. After all, they did brush aside the more fancied Denmark in their opening game on Wednesday.