An extremely odd article from last week’s USA Today:

KABUL — Is the world ready for a sport played with a headless goat carcass?Haji Abdul Rashid thinks it is and has big plans: corporate sponsors, television rights and beyond.

 ”We want it to become an Olympic sport,” says Rashid, who heads the Buzkashi Federation.

 To understand how ambitious — even crazy — this is, consider the game. Buzkashi, which means “goat grabbing,” is a violent sport with virtually no rules. Players, called chapandaz, gallop at breakneck speed over a dusty field, fighting over a dead animal without a head.

 Buzkashi is undergoing a renaissance in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was ousted from power by U.S. forces in 2001. There are more games, players and spectators than ever before. Rashid says he has already contacted some Olympic officials.

 Once dominated by powerful warlords or tribal leaders, buzkashi is attracting a new generation of businessmen who are using the game to meet contacts and get clients, explains Said Maqsud, who owns a Kabul-based security company that employs more than 1,000 people.

 ”That is a new concept,” Maqsud says. “Now businessmen like me can be involved.”

 Rashid knows the game needs to be standardized to export the sport, played principally in Afghanistan and some Central Asian countries. Previous efforts to impose consistent rules have gone nowhere.

 The game has no rounds or time limits. Galloping horses regularly spill off the field, sending terrified spectators running for safety. Some games are played with 12-man teams; others are scored individually with hundreds of horses careening around the field.

 ”It’s very violent,” says Maqsud, who also has seven buzkashi horses. “Animal rights activists wouldn’t like it.”

 A spokesman for the International Olympic Committee, Mark Adams, said he was not aware of any overtures from buzkashi officials. He said there might be concerns that the sport is not widely known and has no governing body that regulates it.

 ”I’m not sure it’s a universal sport,” Adams said.

 Some players eliminated — permanently

 Afghans love the game. On a recent Friday on the outskirts of Kabul, spectators begin arriving midmorning to watch a practice match. An old man sells peanuts from a wheelbarrow. A policeman sits on the hood of his car, his AK-47 across his knees.

 The object of the game is to carry the carcass, which can weigh as much as 100 pounds, toward the other end of the field and around a flag before heading back to drop it in a circle marked with chalk. Players occasionally end up with broken bones or even trampled to death.

 It looks like chaos and pretty much is.

 Unlike polo, which has elaborate rules to protect horses and riders, buzkashi has few regulations. One rule: Whips are to be used only on horses. “You cannot hit the other chapandaz,” says Haji Ameen, 29, a rider who also sponsors a team in Kabul.

 The carcass originally was a goat but calves are more common now because they are sturdier and more readily available.

 The game may seem simple, but to ride at top speed while hanging on to a heavy carcass by its hind leg and maneuvering away from other riders takes strength, courage and riding skill.

 A single referee runs around the field with a megaphone to announce when a rider scores — and tries to avoid getting trampled. Color commentary is provided by another man on horseback who rides up to the reviewing stand.

 At the Kabul match, 73-year-old Habibullah, who like many Afghans goes by only one name, praises the chapandaz after a score, as well as the owner of the horse, often in flowery prose.

 After scoring, riders are handed a cash prize, which they tuck into their tunics before riding back onto the field. On this day, the prize is the equivalent of about $80, but awards can be more than $1,000 for prominent matches.

 The money is supplied by sponsors, usually politicians or businessmen, who are dutifully praised by Habibullah.

 Taliban tried to tame national pastime

 Buzkashi’s history parallels the nation’s. It was popular in the 1960s, under King Zahir Shah, when it was played under government sponsorship.

 The Taliban, which banned nearly every other form of amusement in Afghanistan, was unable to abolish the game entirely. It managed to thrive in the mountainous north, under the control of powerful anti-Taliban commanders.

 Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban imposed a rule that prevented the use of a carcass, allowing only the skins of calves or goats stuffed with straw. The Taliban considered it sinful to kill an animal without using its meat. Buzkashi enthusiasts, such as Rashid, still speak bitterly of that era. The stuffed skins easily tore apart.

 More recently, buzkashi played a role in the Afghan election. One of the game’s largest patrons in Kabul is Mohammad Qasim Fahim, a vice president and a controversial figure because of his background as a notorious warlord. He sponsors many matches, which isn’t lost on the audiences.

 ”That’s why he got so many votes for (President Hamid) Karzai,” Rashid says.

 The game’s recent boom in popularity gives Rashid hope that buzkashi can attract a world audience. He imagines exhibition games in Europe and big corporate sponsors. Rashid says players would even be willing to play with an artificial leather carcass if an international audience objects to a dead calf or goat.

 And to those who complain about the game’s violence, Rashid has a ready response: “What about professional wrestling? Why is that acceptable?”