Afghan rider Sarwar Pahlawan blinked away ache from the brand new stitches between his eyes as his buzkashi group chased match victory. The traditional sport continues to be steeped in danger 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 advanced from a tough rural pastime to a professionalised phenomenon, flush with money.
“The sport has modified fully,” the horseman, quickly to show 40, mentioned after returning house victorious from the match last within the northern metropolis of Mazar-i-Sharif earlier this month.
After 20 years as a buzkashi rider, or “chapandaz”, Sarwar welcomes the adjustments to the sport, which is performed throughout Central Asia and options components akin to polo and rugby.
“They used to pay us with rice, oil, a carpet or a cow,” he mentioned, however in the present day the chapandaz have skilled contracts.
One of the best gamers can now earn $10,000 per 12 months, with successful teammates sharing $35,000, three camels and a automotive supplied by sponsors after clinching the title.
Historically, buzkashi is performed with the headless physique of a goat.
At the moment, 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 sector at full gallop with rivals in sizzling pursuit.
Coaching has modified too because the nationwide league’s high groups have advanced.
Sturdy horsemen now not hold from timber or cut up wooden to construct muscle – they elevate weights in gyms.
“Earlier than, once we returned from a match, chilly water was poured on our shoulders, now now we have hammams [bath houses] and saunas,” mentioned 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 actually have a bike, and now I’ve a automotive. 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 most important financier of the brand new buzkashi.
The Afghan businessman arrange the successful group 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 value as much as $100,000 every.
“On this group, we invested round one million {dollars} in horses, riders, stables and different gear,” mentioned Karim.
“I simply need to serve my folks,” he mentioned. “When my group wins, it’s an honour for me.”
It might value round $300,000 a 12 months to maintain the group’s stallions, consumed 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, informed 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 purple playing cards rain down within the occasion of a foul.