Ajay Jadeja, a former Indian cricket player who helped the Afghan team win against strong opponents in the last ODI World Cup, has not taken any payment for his work as a mentor. Naseeb Khan, the head of Afghanistan’s cricket organization, said they tried to pay Jadeja several times, but he always refused. Jadeja said that seeing the team play well was enough payment for him. This was reported by Ariana News.
.Jadeja was hired just before the ICC competition in India began. He was part of the team’s strategy group when Afghanistan beat strong teams like Pakistan, England, and Bangladesh. However, their hopes of reaching the semifinals were crushed when Glenn Maxwell scored an amazing 200 runs. Jadeja, who is 53 years old, has played 196 One-Day International matches for India, scoring a total of 5359 runs with an average of 37.47. He has made six centuries and 30 half-centuries. He also played 15 Test matches for India from 1992 to 2000, scoring 576 runs with an average of 26.18. His highest score was 96. At that time, head coach Jonathan Trott thought that Afghanistan’s impressive performance in the tournament, which helped them shed their ‘weak team’ image, was largely due to Jadeja’s role as a mentor.
Jadeja shared his thoughts on how the Afghanistan team felt in their locker room after they won against Pakistan in the ODI World Cup last year in India. During a talk with ex-Pakistan captain Rashid Latif, Jadeja, who was the coach for the Afghan team in the ICC World Cup 2023, mentioned that games between Pakistan and Afghanistan were more intense than the ones between India and Pakistan.
“During the World Cup with 50 overs per side in India, I watched the Afghan team closely. After they beat Pakistan, the team’s locker room was very happy, like everyone was really excited even though they hadn’t had any alcohol,” Jadeja said. “A lot of people wanted to know how I felt after the game. I told them that if the rivalry between Pakistan and India is intense, it’s ten times more intense in matches between Pakistan and Afghanistan,” he explained.
