NEWS
Follow UsEngland women’s cricket team captain Heather Knight feels that people forgot about Afghanistan women cricketers who were outlawed by the Taliban and who sought refuge in Australia’s Canberra and Melbourne.
Knight’s comments come right after UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and South Africa Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie criticised the ICC for allowing the Afghanistan men’s team to participate in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, being held in Pakistan.
"I think it's a good thing that people are talking about it and it's been in the news again because honestly, I think it's been forgotten a lot which is a really bad thing," Knight was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo ahead of first ODI of the Women’s Ashes.
"It's a complex situation with what's going on but I think the biggest positive can be that group of women being talked about,” added the 34-year-old.
The players of the Afghanistan women’s cricket team will play a match on the same day as the first day of the only Test of the Women’s Ashes and Knight said that she would want that game to be viewed by a larger audience.
"They're playing a game at Junction the first day of our Test match so I'd love to see that broadcast far and wide. Let's get that voice out there that those women are playing cricket, which is a cool thing.
"I think that could be a positive message from a pretty heartbreaking situation going on in their home country,” she said.
The match would be between the refugee Afghan women’s team and a world cricket XI. The women cricketers fled after the Taliban rule started in Afghanistan in 2021.
