ISLAMABAD (AP) — The Afghanistan Cricket Board has withdrawn its national team from next month’s Twenty20 tri-series in Pakistan after it said three local cricketers were killed in Pakistan military strikes in southeastern Paktika province Friday.
The ACB said on social media Saturday that the cricketers were “targeted during a gathering” in Urgun district when they returned home after playing a friendly cricket match in Sharana, the capital of Paktika province.
Paktika officials said the players had been visiting a home at the time of the strike that killed 10 people.
ACB spokesman Said Nasim Sadat identified the players killed as Kabeer Agha Argon, Sibghatullah Zirok, and Haroon, who, like many Afghans, only goes by one name.
The International Cricket Council said it “stands in solidarity with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and echoes their grief.”
The ICC said it was “deeply saddened and appalled by the tragic deaths of three young and promising Afghan cricketers.”
“The ICC strongly condemns this act of violence that has robbed families, communities, and the cricketing world of three bright talents whose only ambition was to play the sport they loved,” it added.
Fellow cricketer Saifullah Khan was in the hospital where the wounded cricketers were being treated.
“We are athletes and ambassadors of peace," he said. “We don't want there to be anymore bombings or killings like this.”
On Saturday, several thousand people attended the funeral prayers in Paktika. They sat in the open air as loudspeakers broadcast sermons and condemnations.
“The ACB considers this a great loss for Afghanistan’s sports community, its athletes, and the cricketing family,” the board said in its statement.
“In response of this tragic incident and as a gesture of respect to the victims, the Afghanistan Cricket Board has decided to withdraw from participating in the upcoming Tri-Nation T20I Series.”
Afghan captain Rashid Khan and the Afghanistan Sports Journalists Federation welcomed the decision. The federation condemned the strike as a “barbaric and shameful act, which stands in clear violation of all international laws.”
The tri-series, also featuring Sri Lanka, is scheduled to be played Nov. 17-29 in Rawalpindi and Lahore as part of teams' preparations for next year’s T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
The Pakistan Cricket Board said in a statement that Zimbabwe Cricket has accepted its invitation and will replace Afghanistan in the tri-series.
Pakistan and Afghanistan had competed in a three-nation tournament in the United Arab Emirates in September. Pakistan beat Afghanistan in the final of that tournament.
Associated Press writer Abdul Qahar Afghan contributed to this report from Jalalabad, Afghanistan
AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
Cricketer Mira Jan lies wounded in a hospital bed after a Pakistani cross-border airstrike that killed several people, including three other local cricketers, at the regional hospital in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shafiqullah Mashaal)
The bodies of victims of a Pakistani cross-border airstrike, including three local cricketers, are prepared for their funeral in the village of Khandaro in the Argun district of Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shafiqullah Mashaal)
Locals inspect the site of a cross-border attack by the Pakistani army in Afghanistan's eastern Paktika province, Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Shafiqullah Mashaal)
OSLO, Norway (AP) — Former U.N. human rights chief Navanethem “Navi” Pillay, a judge on the International Court of Justice, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday in Oslo, Norway.
The South Africa-born Pillay, 85 years old, was recognized for her efforts to promote peace and international law, said Jørgen Watne Frydnes, Chair of the Norwegian Nobel Committee.
The award is often considered the most prestigious honor on the planet.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back for updates. AP’s earlier story follows below.
The Nobel Peace Prize, often considered the most prestigious award on the planet, will be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.
Prognosticators say possible contenders this year include the International Space Station, emergency teams in Sudan, children's advocates in Ukraine and two top international courts. Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada has attracted attention in prediction markets. U.S. President Donald Trump — who is waging a war against Iran — has long coveted the prize and repeatedly said he deserves it.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo received nominations for 287 candidates for this year’s prize, and just over a quarter of them are organizations. Experts say the committee typically focuses on the durability of peace, the promotion of international fraternity and the quiet work of institutions that strengthen those goals.
Last year, Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado won the Nobel Peace Prize for her struggle to achieve a democratic transition in the South American nation, winning recognition as a woman “who keeps the flame of democracy burning amid a growing darkness.”
Machado gave Trump her Nobel medal shortly after the United States ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro. But it was largely a symbolic gesture: the Nobel Committee has said the honor itself cannot be transferred.
Nominations can be made by a select group of people and organizations, including heads of state or politicians serving at a national level, university professors, directors of foreign policy institutes, past Nobel Prize recipients and members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee itself.
Four of this year's Nobels were announced earlier this week. The Nobel for medicine went to three scientists whose work led to a tool that uses light to help unravel how the brain works. The physics award recognized a scientist’s efforts to demystify a rare group of neutrinos. The chemistry prize recognized two scientists for untangling mysterious mirror images in molecules, a discovery that has been used to develop countless drugs.
Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson won the literature prize Thursday for “bold and inventive” works that fuse the classical and the modern and blur the boundaries of poetry and prose.
The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences will be announced Monday.
The prize money this year is 12 million Swedish kronor (about $1.2 million), whether for an individual, small group of laureates or organization.
This year marks the 125th anniversary of the peace prize, which so far has gone to 112 individuals and 28 separate institutions since its inception in 1901. The Red Cross has won three times and the U.N. refugee agency twice.
Just 20 of the 112 individual laureates have been women, but eight of those women received the prize in the past 15 years.
Education activist Malala Yousafzai is the youngest laureate; she won at 17 in 2014.
The United States is the most-credited country, with 24 awards naming U.S. institutions or individuals, ahead of the United Kingdom (13) and Switzerland (11). Yet no laureate listed as American has won since U.S. President Barack Obama was awarded in 2009.
The prize has gone unawarded on 19 occasions, most of them during the world wars. In 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated, no prize was awarded; he had been nominated 12 times and never won.
In 1939, a Swedish member of parliament nominated Adolf Hitler, then withdrew the nomination, saying it was never meant seriously.
Dazio reported from Berlin and Lewis reported from Stavanger, Norway.
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FILE - A Nobel diploma and medal are displayed, Dec. 8, 2020, during a ceremony in New York. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP, File)
