KAB­UL–Afghanistan will tour West In­dies for an eight-match lim­it­ed overs se­ries next June, mark­ing the first time the ICC as­so­ciate na­tion will face the Caribbean side in a full se­ries.

The Afghanistan Crick­et Board an­nounced yes­ter­day that the Asian side would play the Windies in five One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als and three Twen­ty20 In­ter­na­tion­als start­ing mid-June, but re­vealed no spe­cif­ic dates.

For the Afghans, it will be on­ly their third full se­ries against a Full ICC mem­ber fol­low­ing sim­i­lar tours against Zim­bab­we last year, and ACB chief ex­ec­u­tive, Shafiq Stanikazi, said the tour would be a cru­cial one for them.

"This is a ma­jor se­ries with very at­trac­tive teams fea­tur­ing some of the world's best play­ers," he point­ed out.

"We look for­ward to some very en­ter­tain­ing crick­et in T20s and ODIs. On be­half of Afghanistan Crick­et Board, I am very thank­ful to West In­dies Crick­et Board for agree­ing to be hosts for the se­ries."

ACB chair­man, Nasimul­lah Dan­ish, said fac­ing a na­tion with the cal­i­bre of West In­dies, would be a boost to Afghanistan.

"Play­ing with [the] Twen­ty20 cham­pi­ons will boost tech­ni­cal prospects for us," he not­ed.

Afghanistan made a bold state­ment dur­ing the Twen­ty20 World Cup in In­dia last March when they stunned even­tu­al cham­pi­ons West In­dies by six runs in Nag­pur, in the first ever meet­ing be­tween the two teams in an in­ter­na­tion­al.

The suc­cess came against the back­drop of pos­i­tive re­sults last year when they beat Zim­bab­we in lim­it­ed overs se­ries in Harare and in Shar­jah.West In­dies Crick­et Board chief ex­ec­u­tive, Michael Muir­head, said the up­com­ing se­ries was a wel­comed one.

"This se­ries will add to the va­ri­ety of crick­et our teams will be play­ing for the next year and we are hap­py to be able to have teams vis­it the re­gion to add ex­po­sure for all our play­ers," he was quot­ed as say­ing.

West In­dies are cur­rent­ly ranked eighth in ODIs, two spots above Afghanistan, and are third in the T20I rank­ings with the Afghans ly­ing ninth.