Afghan rider Sarwar Pahlawan blinked away ache from the brand new stitches between his eyes as his buzkashi staff chased match victory. The traditional sport remains to be steeped in threat however now gives modern-day rewards.
Performed for hundreds of years on the nation’s northern steppe, the nationwide sport, sitting on the coronary heart of Afghan id, has developed from a tough rural pastime to a professionalised phenomenon, flush with money.
“The sport has modified fully,” the horseman, quickly to show 40, stated after returning house victorious from the match ultimate within the northern metropolis of Mazar-i-Sharif earlier this month.
After 20 years as a buzkashi rider, or “chapandaz”, Sarwar welcomes the modifications to the sport, which is performed throughout Central Asia and options parts akin to polo and rugby.
“They used to pay us with rice, oil, a carpet or a cow,” he stated, however in the present day the chapandaz have skilled contracts.
The very best gamers can now earn $10,000 per yr, with profitable teammates sharing $35,000, three camels and a automobile provided by sponsors after clinching the title.
Historically, buzkashi is performed with the headless physique of a goat.
Immediately, extra typically a 30kg (66lb) leather-based sack stands in for the carcass that riders attempt to pull from a fray of horses and drop in a “circle of justice” traced on the bottom after doing a lap of the world at full gallop with opponents in sizzling pursuit.
Coaching has modified too because the nationwide league’s prime groups have developed.
Sturdy horsemen not grasp from bushes or cut up wooden to construct muscle – they raise weights in gyms.
“Earlier than, after we returned from a match, chilly water was poured on our shoulders, now we’ve got hammams [bath houses] and saunas,” stated Sarwar, often known as “the lion” for his energy.
Being one of many league’s greatest gamers has additionally stuffed Sarwar’s coffers.
“I didn’t also have a bike, and now I’ve a automobile. I had nearly no sheep and now I’ve many. I had no home, and now I’ve two.”
However he says he stays “a easy man”. Between tournaments, he cultivates his land and raises his sheep.
Oil tycoon Saeed Karim, who splits his time between Mazar-i-Sharif, Dubai and Istanbul, is the largest financier of the brand new buzkashi.
The Afghan businessman arrange the profitable staff that bears his firm’s identify, Yama Petroleum, 5 months in the past.
Karim acquired one of the best chapandaz within the nation, together with Sarwar, and round 40 competitors horses, which may price as much as $100,000 every.
“On this staff, we invested round 1,000,000 {dollars} in horses, riders, stables and different tools,” stated Karim.
“I simply wish to serve my folks,” he stated. “When my staff wins, it’s an honour for me.”
It will possibly price round $300,000 a yr to handle the staff’s stallions, ate up barley, dates, carrots and fish oil, in addition to 15 riders and 20 grooms.
For the consolation of his males – who generally undergo damaged ribs, fingers and legs – Karim had a 4-hectare 10-acre) ranch constructed for recuperation.
Whereas Karim’s homeland in northern Afghanistan stays the centre of buzkashi within the nation, the game has made latest inroads within the south – the birthplace of the Taliban authorities who banned the game between 1996 and 2001, however have allowed it since returning to energy three years in the past.
“Buzkashi is that this nation’s ardour,” the president of the Buzkashi Federation, Ghulam Sarwar Jalal, advised AFP. “The Taliban know that it makes folks blissful, that’s why they authorise it.”
In addition they gather taxes from the skilled league, began in 2020, which incorporates 13 groups from 10 provinces.
Likewise, some order has been introduced into the brutal contests, and yellow or pink playing cards rain down within the occasion of a foul.
