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The Afghan Youth National Cricket Team on Monday flew to Ireland to participate in 2012 world cup qualifying competitions.

Fourteen players, one coach and one admin staff are representing Afghanistan in the competitions.

The competitions will be held in Dublin city of Ireland among 10 countries and will continue for 12 days.

This Afghan team's second participation in the world cup qualifying rounds.

Afghan cricket board officials say that the players have had a 20-day practice session in Pakistan before participating in the competitions.

"Our players are well prepared for the competitions, because we provided them a practice camp in Pakistan," Shahzada Massoud, Deputy Director of Afghan Cricket Board told TOLOnews.

"We are confident that our team will perform better in these competitions." Nasimullah Danish, CEO of Afghan the Cricket Board said.

According to the players they can qualify for the world cup competitions.

"We have tried a lot to qualify for the world cup," a player said.

According to Afghan Cricket Board, the Afghan team was qualified for world cup qualifying rounds after beating six teams in Thailand.

The Afghan Youth National Cricket Team had not previously made it to the 2010 world cup after being defeated by India and England.