Almost 50 Afghan refugees watched their nation play in the cricket World Cup against South Africa for free thanks to Thornton Heath Cricket Club.

Harshil Trivedi, had the ambitious goal of arranging for local Afghan refugees to see their team play live in this summer’s tournament and emailed the tournament’s managing director, Steve Elworthy, who to his surprise  offered 48 tickets to the match Cardiff.

Nowhere near enough Afghanis were members of his club, so Harshil reached out to charities Refugee Cricket Project, Lingua House Refugee Project and Beats Learning to boost numbers along with Croydon Voluntary Action and Chevy Green (Surrey Cricket Foundation), he was able to cover the cost of the coach to Wales.

He said: “The day was amazing. We managed to get a full game in the end and the boys were cheering with fellow Afghanistan fans and getting selfies with players from both sides as well as talking to their heroes.”