He cannot remember when exactly, but perhaps a decade ago, the Taliban killed his father, who was working in intelligence for the Afghan government. Soon after, his brother also vanished, and nothing has been heard of him since. These details are narrated slowly, in Pashto, and then translated to me.
As the situation in Afghanistan deteriorated, Niamatullah moved to Pakistan in 2013. When he returned to Afghanistan a year later, his uncle and mother decided that the situation was too unsafe for him to remain. "There's a real war going on," he says. "I decided to go anywhere else to get out of Afghanistan."
His entire family wanted to leave too, but the journey out was too dangerous, and the cost too great, for others to join him. His uncle paid a smuggler US$12,000 to organise his trip, and told Niamatullah to reach Germany: "You've got a chance of a better life there."
Niamatullah journeyed across Afghanistan to Iran. Then, he says, he hid in the luggage compartment of a coach to get across Iran. He trekked across the mountainous border into Turkey, going three days without food, and survived long-range shooting from the border guards.
He then hid in the cargo container of a boat for over ten hours as it crossed the Black Sea to Bulgaria. He was now in the European Union at last, but few who make it this far want to stop in Bulgaria, the poorest of the EU's 28 members. Niamatullah still had to cross 1700km to reach Germany. It took him about a month, mostly spent walking through forests where he could not easily be found.
Finally, he arrived late last year, over 12 months after leaving Afghanistan. In Bremen, an industrial city in the north-west, Niamatullah is trying to rebuild his life. Not 18 for another few weeks, he is going to school, and living in a small abode with another refugee, while awaiting the results of his asylum application. The wait is onerous: while Germany has a more welcoming attitude to Afghan refugees than almost any other European country, many Afghans who are granted the right to stay in Germany are forced to move to a different city from the one they first took shelter in, losing the social networks they have built up.
Niamatullah has not talked to his family for six months. "The conditions are not very good there, the telephone doesn't work, because the Taliban always target the networks, so it's hard to get in contact. I always try," he says. The last time he spoke to his family, he heard his brother had been kidnapped.
In these circumstances, cricket might seem futile, but to Niamatullah it is anything but. Most of the friends he has gained are through cricket. Cricket enables him to meet others from Afghanistan, speak Pashto, and play the sport he loves. It is a beacon of hope.
