The Taliban Cricket Club

Rukhsana is a spirited young journalist in Afghanistan. She takes care of her ill, widowed mother and her younger brother, but when she is summoned to the infamous Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, their quiet, tenuous way of life is shattered. There, the malevolent minister, Zorak Wahidi, announces that the Taliban has found a new way to pursue the diplomatic respect it has long been denied: cricket. On the world stage of sports, the Taliban will prove they are a fair and just regime. Rukhsana and several other journalists are to report that a tournament will be held to determine who will play for Afghanistan. Anyone can put together a team. Women are forbidden to play. The winners will travel to Pakistan to train, then go on to represent Afghanistan around the world. Rukhsana knows this is a shameful, deeply surreal idea. The Taliban will never embrace a game rooted in civility, fairness, and equality. And no one in Afghanistan even knows how to play the gameexcept Rukhsana. This could be a way to get her family out of Afghanistan for good, but before she can organize a team, Wahidi demands her hand in marriage. He finds her exciting and infuriating and wants to control her willful nature. The union would be her prison, stripping away what few freedoms she has left. Refusing, however, might mean her death. Her family rallies around her, willing to do anything to protect her, no matter the cost. Then Rukhsana realizes that Wahidi may have given her a way out. With the help of her beloved brother and cousins, she forms her own cricket team and sets about teaching them how to win their freedomwith a bat and a ball. Inspired by the Talibans actual and unprecedented promotion of cricket in 2000 in an attempt to gain acceptance in the global community, internationally bestselling author Murari weaves a riveting story of strength, hope, and soaring human triumph that proves no tyranny is ever absolute in the face of love.