The ache and achieve within the Afghan sport of buzkashi | In Photos Information

Afghan rider Sarwar Pahlawan blinked away ache from the brand new stitches between his eyes as his buzkashi workforce chased match victory. The traditional sport continues to be steeped in threat however now affords 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 developed 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 at present the chapandaz have skilled contracts.

The perfect gamers can now earn $10,000 per yr, with profitable teammates sharing $35,000, three camels and a automobile supplied by sponsors after clinching the title.

Historically, buzkashi is performed with the headless physique of a goat.

Immediately, extra usually 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 world at full gallop with rivals in sizzling pursuit.

Coaching has modified too because the nationwide league’s prime groups have developed.

Sturdy horsemen not grasp from bushes or cut up wooden to construct muscle – they elevate weights in gyms.

“Earlier than, after we returned from a match, chilly water was poured on our shoulders, now we now have hammams [bath houses] and saunas,” mentioned Sarwar, generally known as “the lion” for his power.

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 automobile. I had virtually 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 largest financier of the brand new buzkashi.

The Afghan businessman arrange the profitable workforce that bears his firm’s identify, Yama Petroleum, 5 months in the past.

Karim acquired the most effective chapandaz within the nation, together with Sarwar, and round 40 competitors horses, which may price as much as $100,000 every.

“On this workforce, we invested round 1,000,000 {dollars} in horses, riders, stables and different tools,” mentioned Karim.

“I simply need to serve my individuals,” he mentioned. “When my workforce wins, it’s an honour for me.”

It might probably price round $300,000 a yr to deal with the workforce’s stallions, ate up barley, dates, carrots and fish oil, in addition to 15 riders and 20 grooms.

For the consolation of his males – who generally endure 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 individuals pleased, that’s why they authorise it.”

In addition they accumulate 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 crimson playing cards rain down within the occasion of a foul.