The outgoing ICC chair, Greg Barclay, last month accused Cricket Australia of hypocrisy over their bilateral series boycott and backed the ICC’s decision to allow Afghanistan’s men’s team to compete. “If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup,” he said. “I don’t think it would make a jot of difference to the ruling party there to kick them out of the ICC,” he added.
The team’s success also provides a platform for players to speak out. Last month two of the men’s team called on the Taliban to lift the ban on women training as doctors and nurses, which had been “one of the last remaining loopholes” available under the overall ban on higher education, said The Guardian.
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“It is essential for our sisters and mothers to have access to care provided by medical professionals who truly understand their needs,” Khan posted on social media. “Providing education to all is not just a societal responsibility but a moral obligation deeply rooted in our faith and values.”
But Afghanistan’s place on the world cricket stage is becoming increasingly controversial. International Cricket Council (ICC) rules require member nations to have both a men’s and a women’s team, but one of the Taliban’s first acts after retaking power in 2021 was to disband Afghanistan’s nascent women’s squad. Most of its players fled to Australia, where they live in exile. Now England is “under pressure” to boycott its fixture against Afghanistan in the ICC Champions Trophy group stage on 26 February, said the Daily Mirror, in protest at the Taliban’s “appalling treatment of women”.