Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan was offered Indian citizenship by ‘high-ranking official’; here’s how he responded

Rashid Khan was approached by two countries, including India, with offers of citizenship and a chance to represent them, but he turned them down and chose to continue playing for Afghanistan, according to a new book.

In Rashid Khan: From Streets to Stardom, set to be released on Monday, Rashid told author Mohammad Haand Jafar that both India and Australia made such offers.

“I received such offers (citizenship and playing) from both Australia and India. But I told them, ‘If I don’t play for my country, I won’t play for any other country either,” Khan is quoted as saying in the book, news agency PTI reported.

While he did not go into details about the Australian offer, the 27-year-old described the Indian approach during the 2023 IPL season.

Rashid, who plays in the IPL for Gujarat Titans, said a team official told him that a “high-ranking official from the Indian Cricket Board” wanted to meet him.

“I went over and greeted him. We started talking, and he said: ‘The situation in your country (Afghanistan) is very bad. Come stay in India. We will give you Indian documents, live here, play cricket here.’ I was surprised by what he was saying and didn’t know how to respond. But I smiled and said, ‘Thank you very much. I am playing for my country, Afghanistan,'” Khan said.

Rashid’s stance on representing Afghanistan has come up earlier as well.

As mentioned in the book, during the 2018 IPL, while playing for Sunrisers Hyderabad against Kolkata Knight Riders, he delivered an all-round performance, scoring 34 off 10 balls and taking three wickets.

The performance led to social media posts in India asking the government to grant him citizenship, with users tagging then External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Responding to those posts, Swaraj tweeted: “I saw all your tweets. But citizenship matters are dealt with by the Ministry of Home Affairs.”

The issue also drew a reaction from former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who said Rashid was a matter of national pride and would not be given to another country.

Rashid later thanked him and said he would continue to represent Afghanistan.

The book follows Rashid’s journey from Nangarhar to international cricket. It covers how he missed out on an Afghanistan U-19 trial before becoming one of the country’s leading players and later being named the ICC’s Player of the Decade in 2020.