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Afghanistan all-rounderSamiullah Shinwari was too young to remember his family's trek through the mountains, as his mother and father fled the war to seek safety in neighbouring Pakistan.

Like many of his teammates, he discovered cricket in a refugee camp in Peshawar and was playing in Pakistan when he was spotted by an Afghanistan coach.He is now a senior member of the team after 37 one-day internationals and 25 Twenty20s.

Shinwari, 26, said his native country still had problems, but there were plenty of safe areas and he was looking forward to the day it would become trouble-free.

His early years were especially tough for his parents, trying to keep a young family safe.

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"We grew up in the refugee camps in Pakistan," Shinwari said. "When I was a child we moved to Pakistan [via the] mountains, I don't think there would be cars or something else, so we moved by walking across the border.

"In Peshawar, I studied there, I played cricket there, I learnt everything there. There was no choice to go back to Afghanistan because of war.[It was] too tough because my mum said there was nothing. We walked by the mountains, there was fighting, so we were lucky we moved to Peshawar."

His family did not return to its native country until 2004.

Now Shinwari is a senior member of the Afghanistan team, which has qualified for the Cricket World Cup for the first time.They are on tour in Australasia to get used to the conditions and will play the second of two practice games against the ACT Comets at Manuka Oval on Sunday, after winning the first in a thriller on Friday.

Shinwari played a crucial role in the win and Afghanistan coach Andy Moles said he would be a similarly important cog at the World Cup as a middle-order batsman and with his leg-spin.He helped guide the visitors to victory with an unbeaten 31 runs off 28 balls as they chased down the Comets' 266 with four balls to spare.

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Mountainous escape from Afghanistan war takes Samiullah Shinwari into cricket