Rashid Khan, 26, is among the highest-earning athletes worldwide, with a monthly income of 59 million Afghanis, equivalent to approximately 883,000 USD. Rashid, who became famous at 15 while playing for Afghanistan’s cricket team, is Afghanistan’s first athlete to become a millionaire through his sports fame. The Indian Premier League (IPL) website reported that Rashid Khan played for the Gujarat Titans for 15 crore Indian rupees (about 1.8 million USD) in a season of the IPL. Established in 2008, the IPL has become one of the most popular cricket leagues worldwide, known for attracting the best players and offering significant prizes. Teams compete in a two-to-three-month season each year, culminating in the final rounds. The IPL follows the Twenty20 (T20) format, where each team has 20 overs, making the games shorter and more intense than other cricket formats. Rashid Khan earned 1.8 million USD for playing in a single two-to-three-month season in the IPL, while also earning monthly income from other teams. Additionally, he earns from brand endorsements worldwide.
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The media outlet also noted that Rashid Khan owns a luxurious villa in Nangarhar, where he lives with his six brothers and four sisters. Rashid also has a collection of expensive cars, including a Land Rover Vogue, valued at 600,000 USD. Reports suggest that Rashid also owns properties in Kabul, India, Australia, and Dubai, though no detailed information on these is available. He travels globally for cricket but has never publicly discussed his wealth.
In early October, Rashid held a grand wedding at a Kabul hotel, widely covered on social media, showing Taliban members and fans attending the event. Ahmadullah Wasiq, the Taliban regime’s head of sports, noted that the wedding was held "entirely within Islamic and Afghan cultural frameworks." Unlike other prominent global athletes, Rashid did not post photos of his wedding or wife on social media, and there is no information about his wife. Rashid is also one of the most popular cricketers in India, with his wedding attracting significant attention among Indian users, who noted that he conducted the ceremony in the traditional Pashtun manner. Rashid, of Pashtun ethnicity, has close connections with leaders of the Haqqani network, including Sirajuddin Haqqani, a fact that has drawn widespread criticism of the Afghan cricket team, as all its members are from the Pashtun ethnicity and frequently attend events hosted by Haqqani.
Two months ago, Marzia Hamidi, a renowned Afghan taekwondo athlete based in Paris, criticized Rashid Khan for “sitting alongside the world’s most notorious terrorist” instead of supporting Afghan women and girls denied education and employment by the Taliban. This criticism sparked backlash from Rashid’s fans. French media reported that Marzia Hamidi faced death and sexual assault threats from Rashid’s fans following her comments. She wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that she is now under French police protection and has suffered emotional distress due to the threats.
@Mukhtar Wafayee, Independent Persian
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