"We took part in ACC tournament in Dubai and got first

position and qualified for the Emerging Nations tournament in Singapore in 2013. We had a 6-week camp in Jalalabad from November 22. There were issues relating to fitness of team. We can't get competitive teams to play us in our home base of Sharjah, UAE. We played in Pakistan v Pakistan `A' (earlier this month). We are going to UAE in March to play against Scotland," said Stanekzai. Afghanistan is to play against Scotland in the ICC League series 4-day match apart from 2 ODIs and one T20 in preparation for World T20 next year. It has set its sights on the 2015 World Cup to be jointly hosted by Australia and New Zealand. Asked about BCCI's approach on inclusion of Afghan players in the IPL auction in future, Stanekzai said this idea germinated in their mind after four of their players did well in the ongoing Bangladesh Premier League. "That is in our mind, especially after four of our players performed very well in the Bangladesh Premier League. Nabi Mohammed, our top all-rounder, was selected for Sylhet Royals and has played really well. He has got around 20 wickets and scored 2 fifties, and is a good fielder. He has taken good catches and (effected) run outs. "We are hopeful that BCCI or any of the franchise teams of IPL would give them a chance. I personally approached one of them to give them a chance prior to their IPL matches in pre-training camps. Mostly we will be giving fast bowlers. Hopefully we will have a positive response," Stanekzai said. He said cricket has overtaken football in terms of popularity in his nation. "Cricket has become more popular than football because of the success of the national team and is followed by 43,000 fans on Facebook. Interest in cricket going up day by day, especially in the Under 22 age group," he added.