India, June 16 -- There were days when Dawood Ahmadzai could only shed tears while watching a Hashmatullah Shahidi hit a cover drive or a Mohammed Nabi bowl a classical off-break.

At times he would wonder what went wrong that his former Afghanistan U19 teammates like Shahidi and likes of Nabi, Gulbadin Naib or Najibullah Zadran, with whom he played competitive cricket were all making waves on the international circuit and T20 leagues while he was trying to figure out if there was any cricket left in him.

"There were many times when I cried watching them on television. They were my teammates. We played together. Sometimes I would think about what happened to my journey and how different things could have been," Ahmadzai, now 32, was a tr...