Afghanistan coach happy to ignore warnings

Mar 11, 2015 - 8:52 AM Afghanistan coach Andy Moles has no regrets about ignoring a warning from his security consultant brother to take on one of the most dangerous jobs in world cricket.

The 54-year-old Englishman, a reliable opening batsman during an 11-year career with county side Warwickshire, took over as coach of war-torn Afghanistan in September last year.

Moles will be in charge for their World Cup finale against a struggling England side at the SCG on Friday with both teams on the same number of points after they each beat Scotland.

"I've got a brother who used to work for the Met (London's Metropolitan Police) in anti-terrorism," said Moles.

"He had his own business but has just started working for Apple as a global security manager. He gets all the information through the security channels and hears a lot more than the person on the street does.

"He advised me not to go because of the security issues. But he realises that it is a line of work that I do so he advises me on one or two things to look out for and to make me a little wiser in planning my days to limit the risk that maybe out there."

And Moles insisted he'd personally not experienced any problems in a country where several leading players initially learnt their cricket in refugee camps in neighbouring Pakistan.

"Not at all. I've been there three months out of the seven-eight months I've been in the job.

"The danger is you get lackadaisical but I've not felt threatened at any time. There's lots of military hardware around travelling the street and armed guards wherever you go - AK47s (rifles) everywhere.

"But up to now I've been smart and made the right choices."

Moles compared the life he had as a player with Birmingham-based Warwickshire to the one he has when he is in Kabul.

"The curries are better in Birmingham," he said.

Source: AAP