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Xtra Time Web Desk: The Afghanistan cricketers are leaving in an uncertain world, mostly in distress and fear after the Taliban take-over. The top cricketers of the country did get together for practice at the Kabul International Cricket Stadium just days after the country fell to the Taliban. Despite the uncertainty, Afghanistan’s cricket authorities had hoped their upcoming ODI series against Pakistan, to be played in Sri Lanka next month, would go ahead. But on Monday, the two sides opted to postpone it until next year.

Pakistan Cricket Board said it had accepted Afghanistan’s request to delay the series “due to players’ mental health issues, disruption in flight operations in Kabul and other issues.”

Following the Taliban take over, many of the Afghan national team players are finding it difficult to focus on sports.

“The fear is there in their eyes, in their voices, even in their messages,” pace bowler Naveen-ul-Haq said of his teammates in Kabul during a BBC radio interview broadcast over the weekend.

“The Taliban have said (they) won’t be troubling any sportsmen, but nobody knows,” added Haq, speaking from the West Indies, where he plays in the Caribbean Premier League.

The return of the Taliban has sparked widespread fear in Afghanistan and in the international community, reviving memories of their brutal first stint in power from 1996 to 2001 when they imposed a harsh version of Islamic law.

They banned most forms of entertainment — including many sports — and stadiums doubled as public execution venues.

Talibans did not mind cricket and is popular among Taliban fighters too.

That has done little to ease the fears of many players, for whom the fall of the country is about a lot more than the sport.

“I appeal to the leaders of the world: please don’t let Afghanistan go into chaos,” former national captain Mohammad Nabi tweeted days before the fall of Kabul, as the Taliban were rapidly capturing territory.

“We need your support. We want peace.”

In the last 20 years, cricket has also emerged as a powerful symbol of national unity in a country riven by civil war and ethnic conflict.

“If you find positive news, if you see people happy together, it’s only cricket … that brings it to the country. It’s that important to Afghanistan,” Haq told the BBC.

“It’s more than a game for Afghanistan’s people,” signed off Haq.