For Afghan cricket the series against Ireland includes a debut "home" test match, despite it being on Indian soil in the foothills of the Himalayas.
From where the game was in Afghanistan a decade ago, though, it represents significant progress.
Afghanistan will host Ireland in the northern Indian city of Dehradun for three Twenty20 and five one-day internationals before a five-day test match — only the second for both countries since their admission to cricket's elite.
Afghanistan lost to India last year in its very first test, and Ireland lost to Pakistan.
Since then both teams have been focused on cricket's shorter formats rather than the more traditional, longest form of the game. Afghanistan qualified for the World Cup in England after edging out the more experienced Zimbabwe, and will open its campaign against Australia at Bristol on June 2. But the focus for now is very much on the test match, which had to be brought forward by four days so it didn't clash with the start of the Indian Premier League on March 23.
Afghanistan's three spin bowlers — Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb-ur-Rehman — will be featuring in the lucrative IPL, which is now beginning earlier to give all the players rest ahead of the World Cup.
"Keeping in mind the dates of the Indian Premier League, in which three of Afghanistan's main players will be participating, the dates were slightly adjusted," Afghanistan Cricket Board chief executive officer Shafiqullah Stanikzai said. "And I would like to thank Cricket Ireland for honoring our request."
In the absence of Gary Wilson, Ireland will be led by Paul Stirling in the T20s before William Porterfield takes over the captaincy for the ODIs and the test match.
Wilson is still recovering a condition which affects his vision, diagnosed in December last year, and will miss the entire tour.
"It's a privilege to have been asked to captain the side (and) I will relish the challenge," Stirling said. "Having started off in this side as a young player in 2008, the influence of senior players like Trent Johnston, Kyle McCallan, Andrew White and Ed Joyce were huge in developing the cricketer and the person.
"It is a big year ahead for us with the T20 World Cup qualifiers coming up in October, so the importance is growing with each game we play."
Afghanistan selectors have tried to balance experience and consistency with the need to develop more players for the international game, and have made changes to their squads for each format.
Allrounder Sahrafuddin Ashraf, Ikram Ali Khil and 17-year-old left-arm fast bowler Waqar Salamkhail were named among the 14-member test squad as Afghanistan, which didn't include Amir Hamza and Zahir Khan and three other players who were involved in their country's inaugural test match.
Ashraf is not part of Afghanistan's expanded 21-member squad for the ODIs, but will feature in the Twenty20s. Khil will be vying for a spot in the World Cup as he was also named in the ODI squad, but was left out from the T20s.
Afghanistan's seasoned campaigners such as Dawlat Zadran and Shapoor Zadran have been given an opportunity to muscle their way into the World Cup squad and show their prowess during the ODIs along with hard-hitting batsman Hazratullah Zazai, a rookie spotted during Afghanistan's domestic T20 league, held in the United Arab Emirates.
Surprisingly Afghan selectors have left out accomplished T20 wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad from the T20s, but the burly right-hander will be in contention to go to the World Cup in England after he was included in the squads for the ODIs and test match against Ireland.
Playing in Afghanistan's adopted home — India — will pose a stern challenge to the Ireland batsmen, with the wickets likely to suit the Afghan spinners.
But Porterfield was optimistic about his team's prospects, particularly after giving Pakistan an early scare in his country's inaugural test match in Dublin last May.
"I expect this to be a great contest away from home," Porterfield said. "We have a great balance throughout the squad and it's great to see some new faces get the opportunity."
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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A sprawling betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games ensnared 26 people, including more than a dozen college basketball players who tried to fix games as recently as last season, federal prosecutors said Thursday.
The scheme generally revolved around fixers recruiting players with the promise of a big payment in exchange for purposefully underperforming during a game, prosecutors said. The fixers would then place big bets against the players’ teams in those games, defrauding sportsbooks and other bettors, authorities said.
Concerns about gambling and college sports have grown since 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a federal ban on the practice, leading some states to legalize it to varying degrees. The NCAA does not allow athletes or staff to bet on college games, but it briefly allowed student-athletes to bet on professional sports last year before rescinding that decision in November.
According to the indictment unsealed Thursday, fixers started with two games in the Chinese Basketball Association in 2023 and, successful there, moved on to rigging NCAA games as recently as January 2025.
The fixers’ scheme grew to involve more than 39 players on more than 17 different NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams, who then rigged and attempted to rig more than 29 games, prosecutors said. They wagered millions of dollars, generating “substantial proceeds” for themselves, and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to players in bribes, prosecutors said, with payments to players typically ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 per game.
Four of the players charged — Simeon Cottle, Carlos Hart, Oumar Koureissi and Camian Shell — played for their current teams in the last few days, although the allegations against them do not involve this season.
Calling it an “international criminal conspiracy,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf told reporters in Philadelphia that this case represents a “significant corruption of the integrity of sports.” The indictment suggests that many others — including unnamed players — had a role in the scheme but weren't charged, and Metcalf said the investigation was continuing.
Of the defendants, 15 played basketball for Division I NCAA schools during 2024-25 season, prosecutors say. Five others last played in the NCAA in the 2023-24 season while another, former NBA player Antonio Blakeney, played in the Chinese Basketball Association in the 2022-23 season.
The remaining five defendants were described as “fixers” who recruited players and placed bets. They include two men who prosecutors say worked in the training and development of basketball players. Another was a trainer and former coach, one was a former NCAA player and two were described as gamblers, influencers and sports handicappers.
One fixer, reassuring another fixer, texted him that there are no guarantees “in this world but death taxes and Chinese basketball,” court papers said.
At the end of the Chinese Basketball Association's 2022-23 season, fixers put nearly $200,000 in bribe payments and shared winnings from rigged games into Blakeney's storage locker in Florida, authorities said.
Players also helped fix games by recruiting other players, authorities said. In many instances, the defendants’ wagers on the rigged games were successful. “The sportsbooks would not have paid out those wagers had they known that the defendants fixed those games,” the indictment said.
The charges, filed in federal court in Philadelphia, include bribery, wire fraud and conspiracy.
One betting scandal after another has rocked the sports world, where gambling revenue topped $11 billion for the first three-quarters of last year, according to the American Gaming Association. That’s up more than 13% from the prior year, the group said.
The indictment follows a series of NCAA investigations that led to at least 10 players receiving lifetime bans this year for bets that sometimes involved their own teams and their own performances. And the NCAA has said that at least 30 players have been investigated over gambling allegations. More than 30 people were also charged in last year’s sprawling federal takedown of illegal gambling operations linked to professional basketball.
Levy reported from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writer Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia contributed.
David Metcalf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, speaks during a news conference to announce charges against 20 people including 15 former college basketball players, in what prosecutors called a betting scheme to rig NCAA and Chinese Basketball Association games, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026 in Philadelphia. (AP Photo/Tassanee Vejpongsa)
