MAZARISHARIF: Afghan rider Sarwar Pahlawan blinked as he blinked through the pain of fresh stitches between his eyes as his buzkashi team chased victory in a tournament in an ancient sport still steeped in risk but now offering modern rewards.
Played for centuries in Afghanistan’s northern steppes, the national sport has evolved from a rough country pastime into a professionalized, money-filled phenomenon.
“The game has completely changed,” the soon-to-be 40-year-old rider told AFP after returning home victorious from the tournament final in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif earlier this month.
After 20 years as a buzkashi, or “chapandaz” rider, Sarwar welcomes changes to the game, which is played in Central Asia and has elements similar to polo and rugby.
“They used to pay us with rice, oil, a carpet or a cow,” he said, but today the Chapandaz have professional contracts.
The top players can now earn $10,000 a year, with the winning teammates splitting $35,000, three camels and a car offered by sponsors after winning the title.
Traditionally, buzkashi is played with the headless body of a goat.
More commonly today, a 30-kilogram (66-pound) leather sack represents the carcass that the riders attempt to drag from the troop of horses and drop into the “circle of justice” marked on the ground after they have circled the arena. at full gallop with competitors in hot pursuit.
Coaching also changed as the National League’s top teams developed.
Hardy riders aren’t hanging from trees or chopping wood to build muscle anymore—they’re lifting weights in gyms.
“Earlier when we came back from the tournament, cold water was poured on our shoulders, now we have hammams (baths) and saunas,” said Sarwar, known as “the lion” for his strength.
Being one of the best players in the league filled Sarwar’s coffers as well.
“I didn’t even have a bike and now I have a car. I had almost no sheep and now I have a lot of them. I didn’t have a house and now I have two.”
But he says he remains a “simple person”. Between tournaments, he cultivates his land and tends his sheep.
Oil tycoon Saeed Karim, who divides his time between Mazar-i-Sharif, Dubai and Istanbul, is the biggest financier of the new buzkashi.
The Afghan businessman assembled the winning team that bears the name of his company, Yama Petroleum, five months ago.
Karim acquired two of the country’s best chapandaz, including Sarwar, and about 40 competition horses, each of which can cost up to $100,000.
“We have invested around a million dollars in this team in horses, riders, stables and other equipment,” he told AFP.
“I just want to serve my people,” he said. “When my team wins, it’s an honor for me.
Caring for the team’s stallions, fed on barley, dates, carrots and fish oil, as well as 15 riders and 20 grooms, can cost around $300,000 a year.
For the comfort of his men – who routinely suffer from broken ribs, fingers and legs – Karim had a four-hectare ranch built for the recovery and housing of the horses.
While Karim’s homeland in northern Afghanistan remains the country’s buzkashi hub, the sport has recently made inroads into the south – the birthplace of Taliban authorities, who banned the sport from 1996 to 2001 but have allowed it since returning to power in 2021.
“Buzkashi is the passion of this nation,” Buzkashi Federation president Ghulam Sarwar Jalal told AFP.
“The Taliban know it makes people happy, so they allow it.”
They also collect taxes from a professional league launched in 2020 that includes 13 teams from 10 provinces.
In the same way, a certain order was brought into the brutal competitions, and yellow or red cards rain down in the event of a foul.
But above all, the influx of money transformed buzkashi.
“More fans are coming because they know there are more good horses and good teams have been added to the field,” Karim said.
Ten thousand men packed the Mazar-i-Sharif stadium for the final, facing Taser shocks or blows from the Taliban authorities controlling the club, tasked with keeping the crowds at bay.
Spectators – minus women, who are held back by both cultural stigma and government restrictions – have said they feel safer attending matches as security has improved since the Taliban overthrew the Western-backed government and ended their two-decade insurgency.
“People can now come without fear,” said Mohammad Yama Razaqyar.
“Investment by entrepreneurs is effective for the game. The arrangement is surprisingly good for the matches,” added Razaqyar, who works for the tournament’s sponsor.
Federation president Jalal said the sport has grown since the return of the Taliban – from 100 to 200 riders to at least 500 nationally – “because younger people are interested in it”.
“We’ve had 20 entrepreneurs contact us this year,” he said, adding that he expects $4-5 million to be invested in new teams.
“We want to make it a sport as varied as football or cricket,” Jalal said.
“The more commercial it is, the more international it becomes.”
