Follow UsThe England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) confirmed that the England men’s team will play Afghanistan in the ICC Champions Trophy, despite having had a lot of pressure from all quarters to boycott the game in solidarity with Afghan women, who have been deprived of their basic human rights under the Taliban rule in the country.
Richard Thompson, ECB Chair, said in a statement that since cricket is one of the few sources of enjoyment left for ordinary Afghans, it would be punitive to deprive them of it by not playing against their national team in one of the most important international competitions.
“What is happening in Afghanistan is nothing short of gender apartheid. At a cricketing level, when women’s and girls’ cricket is growing rapidly around the world, it is heartbreaking that those growing up in Afghanistan are denied this opportunity, but the appalling oppression of women and girls by the Taliban goes so much further,” the ECB said in a statement.
“We remain of the view that a co-ordinated international response by the cricketing community is the appropriate way forward, and will achieve more than any unilateral action by the ECB in boycotting this match, while we have also heard that for many ordinary Afghans, watching their cricket team is one of the few remaining sources of enjoyment. As such, we can confirm that we will play this fixture.
“We have used this situation to renew our efforts to support those female cricketers in exile. Last week the ECB donated £100,000 to the Global Refugee Cricket Fund, launched by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and its charity the MCC Foundation to support refugees worldwide, including work to empower and support players from the former Afghanistan Women’s Cricket Team,” it added.
The ECB further said that it would push the ICC to take action to help Afghan players access cricket, especially the players on the women’s team who are now living as refugees in Australia.
“The cricketing community cannot tackle all of Afghanistan’s problems. But we urge our international partners to stand together and demonstrate through our actions that we support the women and girls of Afghanistan, including those cricketers now in exile who just want to play and should be allowed to play the sport they love,” it said.
England will take on Afghanistan on February 26 at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.