IN AFGHANISTAN'S NATIONAL PASTIME, IT'S BETTER TO BE A HERO THAN A GOAT

Star Buzkashi Players Can Earn A Lexus By Butting Heads Over An Animal Carcass

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan-In the slums of Brazil, poor children
dream of making it big by learning to kick a soccer ball. In the
shanty towns of Afghanistan, it's all about tossing a dead goat.

Over the past several years, the ancient sport of buzkashi-Dari for
"goat grabbing"-has turned into a big business in northern
Afghanistan. Instead of sporting-goods manufacturers, sponsors usually
are rival warlords who bet on their favorite goat grabbers.

The buzkashi stars get a monthly wage, receive cars as gifts for a
stellar performance and save enough money to afford a second or even
third wife, the ultimate status symbol here.

"I used to practice buzkashi on donkeys, now I drive a Lexus!" said
33-year-old champion Jahaan Geer from his saddle covered in bright
hand-woven carpets.

Mr. Geer used to play for Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of Afghanistan's
most brutal warlords in the 1990s civil war, but he recently switched
to play for Kam Air, the Afghan airline, whose wealthy owner is one of
the biggest buzkashi enthusiasts.

Like most buzkashi players, Mr. Geer comes from a farming family that
could barely afford to eat meat once a week. Now he claims to eat four
to six pounds of lamb, goat and chicken a day to maintain his thick,
muscular build.

This northern city holds some of the most competitive games across the
country, with a buzkashi statue one of the first things visitors see
when they leave the airport.

Every Friday, thousands of spectators gather at the city's buzkashi
field, eating red-dyed hard-boiled eggs and sharing bags of opium and
joints of hashish. Children with handfuls of fifty- and hundred-dollar
bills from wealthy spectators crisscross the bleachers to place bets
with a bookie. Occasionally, the spectators drop everything and flee
as stampeding horses threaten onlookers while players vie for
possession of the goat.

The objective of the game: fight through the mob of horseback rivals
and drop the headless goat carcass into the "circle of justice"-a
circle drawn into the earth around a pole that serves as a goal. More
recently, the sport has been played with a dead calf, because the
flesh is stronger and the carcass lasts longer, players say.

In a recent game here, which lasted four hours, Mr. Geer anchored a
foot into the stirrup, allowing him to slip down the saddle. He dipped
to the ground and grabbed with one hand the goat carcass, which can
weigh as much as 160 pounds, while holding onto the reins with the
other. A scrum of horses formed, with about 80 players beating one
another with whips as they fought over the goat.

What remained of the goat after Mr. Geer rode off as the game's winner
was cooked and eaten by poor spectators in a festive after-game meal.
The wealthier ones collected the winnings on their bets. Players like
Mr. Geer can receive tips worth thousands of dollars for dropping the
goat into the circle of justice, in a country where most Afghans live
on less than $1 a day.

"Twenty years ago, the players had passion. Now, they play only for
the salaries, not because they love buzkashi," complained 65-year-old
Jabar, a cleaner at the Mazar-e-Sharif stadium who has worked at
buzkashi fields for 20 years. "It's become a game for the rich to gamble."

During the Taliban regime, buzkashi was banned, as were most sports,
because it was considered immoral. After the U.S. ousted the Taliban
in 2001, the new Afghan government proclaimed it the national sport,
organizing tournaments across the land.

Now, the Afghan Buzkashi Federation wants to go global and says it's
considering applying for Olympic status. Although there are no
regional games, buzkashi is played across Central Asia and in parts of
India and Pakistan, much to the dismay of animal-rights advocates, who
oppose any international recognition for the sport.

"England banned fox-hunting, Spain is banning the bullfight, and the
lesson is that pastimes involving cruelty belong in the past, as they
are games of shame that spotlight callousness more than skill," says
Syed Rizvi, a spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Such arguments don't sway the Afghan Buzkashi Federation's deputy
chief, Mirwais Utikhil. He says he finds nothing wrong with whipping
horses and playing with a goat cadaver. "We love our horses, not just
because of buzkashi, but because they are also weapons. They have
always helped us fight off invaders," says Mr. Utikhil.

No one knows the exact origins of buzkashi, but Afghans believe the
game originated about 800 years ago, with the invading Mongol armies
of Genghis Khan, whose skilled horsemen pillaged villages, stealing
sheep and other livestock at full gallop. Afghan villagers developed
the same tactic to steal back their livestock from the Mongol
occupiers, creating the foundations of the game, according to Afghan
government information promoting the sport.

Afghanistan's current first vice president, Mohammad Qasim Fahim, has
sponsored several players. The player described by the chief of Mr.
Fahim's office as "the best" is Aziz Ahmad, a 47-year-old master who
has been playing since he was 15. Mr. Ahmad lives in a large,
two-story house in one of Kabul's wealthiest neighborhoods, a far cry
from the impoverished farming village where he grew up in northern
Kunduz province. He gets a monthly salary from the vice president, who
also gave him the house.

"If you don't have money in Afghanistan, you don't have a good life,"
Mr. Ahmad said. as six of his 11 children from his two wives
surrounded him, bringing him nuts and refilling his cup of green tea.
"If I wasn't a buzkashi player," Mr. Ahmad mused, "I probably would
have ended up a day laborer."