From war zone to cricket pitch: The Afghan story in Adelaide

"You are Sam. You don't know me, but we all knew you."

Samandar Sediqi's voice still chokes up a little when he recalls this unexpected reunion in Adelaide from December last year. It happened while the players from both teams sat having lunch during the first-ever cricket match between the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Interpreters and the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Veterans in the suburb of Kilburn. The youngish-looking man who walked up to Sediqi had served in the same camp as the Afghan for 9 months in the southern provinces of Afghanistan.

"The veteran who recognised me had been a soldier in our camp. We interpreters only dealt with officers. My mentors used to call me Sam.So, he knew who I was and was so grateful for what I'd done," says Sediqi, as we catch up for tea at Agha Juice Centre, one of many Afghan food hangouts in the suburb of Prospect in northern Adelaide. Like with every reunion he's had since moving to Australia with those he served in the warzone with back in his motherland, this one too was highly emotional. This one was a bit more special for Sediqi though. Here he was, an Afghan by birth, far removed from his original home, after having spent 9.5 years of his life serving a foreign army with constant threats to his life, being the one acknowledged for his service by an Australian in Australia.

In a strange way, it also however gave him a unique link to his cricketing hero Rashid Khan for a moment. In terms of being an Afghan who's more recognizable than his Australian colleagues while being a part of an Australian camp. For, let's face it, when you hear the name Adelaide Strikers, the first name that pops to your head is Rashid Khan. This is of course not a slight on the likes of Alex Carey and Travis Head but more an ode to the impact that the best T20 spinner in the world has had on Adelaide, and more importantly the new identity he's given his compatriots who call this beautiful city their adopted home.

Like Mansoor Hashimi, who works for the state government and helps bring communities together, puts it, "When I moved here 15 years ago, every time I mentioned where I was from, they'd say 'oh dangerous place' or 'warzone'. Now they say, home of Rashid Khan. He's given us a new identity and one we are proud of."

And on Friday (November 4), around a thousand or so Adelaide-based Afghans will march up to the Adelaide Oval in their traditional garb to throw their support behind their original national team