The Afghanistan Under-19 team received a warm welcome when they returned to Kabul after qualifying for the next year's Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand, including an audience with president Hamid Karzai at the presidential palace.

However, further reports have confirmed some of what CricketEurope reported yesterday, confirming that a number of players and a member of the coaching staff have remained behind and intend to claim asylum.

The reports have confirmed that five (not seven as previously reported) players and coach Dawlat Khan Zazay didn't return on their scheduled flight from Canada. An anonymous player told the Pajhwok Afghan News website that the five players are Aimal Wafa, Asghar Hussain Hotak, Iqbal Maliki, Zard Ali and Ayoub Ahmadzai.

Of the five, Aimal Wafa is the only one to have played for the full Afghan side, playing three times in last year's ACC Trophy Elite competition.

Shahzada Massoud, the former head of the Afghan Cricket Federation, confirmed to the website that the six had "fled". He blamed "administrative weaknesses and non-professionalism" of the current board. He revealed that in the past, team officials would keep hold of the passports of players in order to prevent such an incident from occurring. Indeed, given the situation in Afghanistan, it is surprising that this hasn't happened before.

The reports have been dismissed by a current senior member of the cricket board, Syed Shah Aminzai, who said that the six will be returning on the next flight from Canada.

Posters on CricketEurope's international forum have suggested that national selectors selected their relatives for the squad with the sole purpose of allowing them to claim asylum, though this has not been confirmed.