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Page 1 of 2  In the midst of all the news concerning Afghanistan, I happened to catch an article on how the Afghan national cricket team is going to play in some sort of tournament hosted by Pakistan. Now I'm into cricket, so I decided I'd examine this further. In summary, though the Afghan team has been accepted into the tournament, there are some questions about whether or not the Afghan team will be able to physically show up. Further, Pakistan has been pushing to get Afghanistan into the International Cricket Council. Anyways, that was all interesting, but irrelevant; what caught my eye was the comment that, in Afghanistan, cricket has nothing near the popularity of the national sport: buzkashi. So I started a quest to discover just what this sport is...
For those of you who have not yet been initiated into buzkashi, it's a lot like polo; nevertheless, there are some major differences between polo and buzkashi: As most of you should know, polo is a form of horse-mounted wussy-croquet, played with a mallet and a small, hard ball. As far as I know it is played only by rich boys named Francis and Thaddeus who have a thing for cashmere sweaters and walking with their ass-cheeks pressed together. On the other hand, buzkashi was developed as method of training to retrieve stolen livestock from Mongol hordes; it literally means "goat grabbing". It is played by the strongest and bravest horsemen selected from each village in perhaps the poorest and most war-devastated country on Earth. The equipment consists of whips and a headless goat carcass, and the game play is not unlike the highway chase scene from the Road Warrior. No doubt the part about the headless goat carcass has piqued your interest, so let's examine the basics of this thrilling sport: A goat, known as the buz, is beheaded and soaked in water for 24 hours that its carcass might harden. A standard carcass is often severely mutilated in the process of a game. This carcass is often filled with sand until it weighs about 60 kilograms (150 pounds). A pit is dug in the ground and the carcass laid in it so that it might be even with the ground. A group of horsemen, known as chavandozlar, surround the hole containing the carcass and upon starting, make a valiant attempt for possession of the carcass. Depending on the type of buzkashi being played, the objective can change:  Tudabarai Buzkashi
In this version of buzkashi, a rider simply has to obtain the carcass and ride with it in any direction staying clear of other riders. Though still badass, Tudabarai has nothing on:
Qarajai Buzkashi The more exciting of the two types of buzkashi, Qarajai requires that a rider obtain possession of the carcass, carry the carcass around a flag, perhaps a mile away, and then return the carcass to a scoring area known as the hallal or "circle of justice". What sport do we have that has a circle of justice anyways? It gives the sport a sense of severity, not unlike Henry Rollins naming his home power lifting gym the "Battle Cage" or even Tina Turner's "Thunderdome". During this time other horsemen are obligated to take possession of the carcass. The rider who brings the carcass to the circle of justice does not need to have been the rider who took the carcass around the flag, but may have stolen the carcass at the last instant. Now for the whips...
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