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A winner emerges from the dust kicked up by the pounding hooves of the herd of horses and riders. The winning team gallops around the playing field waving the flag.
The final was played on Monday in Afghanistan’s hugely popular annual tournament Buzkashi, a traditional horsemanship sport with few formal rules that is often known for violent clashes.
Traditionally, riders from two opposing teams would compete to score goals using a goat carcass as a ball. A fake carcass is now used, made of leather and rope and filled with straw and weights to simulate the size and weight of the dead animal.
The players – 12 riders on each team – hang out of the saddle at impossible angles, pounce to grab the fake corpse and gallop ahead of the rest of the riders towards the goal.
The sport was banned during the Taliban’s first rule over Afghanistan in the late 1990s, but it reemerged after they were ousted from power, and they have allowed it to continue since seizing power again in 2021, with government officials attending matches.
Monday’s final, in which northern province Sar-e-Pul defeated the northeastern province of Badakhshan 7-0, was the 11th day of the national league tournament. Baghlan province ranked third Kunduz Fourth out of 11 participating teams.
eight foreign players tajikistan And Kyrgyzstan also joined the teams, said Atal Mashwani, spokesman for Afghanistan’s Directorate General of Physical Education and Sports.
A corporate sponsor – a gasoline company – ensures funding for the tournament, and there is a prize of a car for each of the first four teams, as well as cups, medals, and certificates.
The tournament is extremely popular, with thousands of men and boys crowding the playing fields in the middle of the KabulSome people scaled trees or power poles to get a better view,
Restrictions placed on women and girls in Afghanistan mean they are not allowed to attend as spectators – although in the country’s conservative society, women attending such matches were frowned upon, even when there were no formal restrictions on their activities.