Grenade explosion inside Kabul cricket stadium injures four

• Explosion went off inside Kabul’s main cricket stadium during  domestic league match.
• Spokesman for Kabul Commander says explosion was due to grenade.
• Match starts after clean-up of area.

KABUL: An explosion went off inside Kabul’s main cricket stadium during a domestic league match on Friday, injuring four people, an official of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) said.

“The match was going on between two teams in Shpageza League, and during the match, a blast happened; four civilians in the crowd have been injured,” the Chief Executive of ACB, Nassib Khan, said in a statement.

ACB staff and players were safe, he added.

A spokesman for the Kabul Commander said that the explosion was due to a grenade.

“The match stopped for a while. After clean-up of the area the match restarted,” the spokesman, Khalid Zadran, told Reuters.

Cricket is a hugely popular sport in Afghanistan, with the country’s national team continuing to do well on the international stage despite limited resources and instability at home. A number of Afghans are ranked among the top players in the world.

Friday is a weekly holiday in Afghanistan, and the eight-team domestic league, which has been running for the last 10 days, had attracted a sizeable audience at the stadium.