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Not boycotts: WCA chief suggests ways to support Afghan women cricketers
Follow UsAfghan women cricketers living in Australia will play their first-ever competitive match since the Taliban takeover on January 30 (Thursday)
World Cricketers Association (WCA) CEO Tom Moffat lashed out against those advocating a boycott of matches against Afghanistan, saying that there are other means through which consistent efforts must be made to protect the rights of all cricketers, including those of the Afghanistan women cricketers, living in exile in Australia.
"The ICC and national governing bodies run and regulate the game and their tournaments, and have a responsibility to exercise leverage to ensure that the rights of players in our sport, including Afghanistan women's players, are protected and respected," Moffat was quoted as saying to ESPNCricinfo.
His comments came on January 29 (Wednesday), just a day ahead of the Afghan women living in Australia playing their first-ever competitive match since the Taliban takeover and their displacement from their homeland.
They will take on a team called Cricket Without Borders at the Junction Oval in Melbourne on January 30 (Thursday). The team will go by the name of Afghanistan Women's XI and not Afghanistan Women as they have not got the recognition as national team from the ICC.
Advocating other means to raise the issue of Afghanistan's women cricketers’ plight, Moffat said, "That doesn't necessarily mean boycotts, there are many ways to exercise leverage.
"But to date, the random and inconsistent manner of dealing with it, and of even having the conversation around the world, highlights the need for cricket's governing bodies to implement a more systematic global approach to protecting basic player rights, along with just about every other aspect of the sport."
English politicians raised the matter of boycotting Afghanistan in the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy 2025, but the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) passed the buck on to ICC. Both England and Australia are to play Afghanistan, while these teams have vowed not to play bilateral series against Afghanistan ever since the Taliban ban on women playing sports.