Basic view of ECB signage earlier than the beginning of the second Ashes Take a look at on the historic Lord’s Cricket Floor, London, Britain on June 28, 2023. — Reuters
England will play their ICC Males’s Champions Trophy 2025 match in opposition to Afghanistan later this month, England Cricket Board (ECB) stated on Thursday, regardless of calls to boycott the sport in response to the Taliban authorities’s crackdown on ladies’s rights.
Final month, a bunch of British lawmakers urged England to boycott the Champions Trophy group stage match in opposition to Afghanistan which shall be held in Lahore on February 26.
South Africa’s Sports activities Minister Gayton McKenzie additionally supported requires a boycott.
Afghanistan had 25 contracted ladies gamers in 2020, however most are actually residing in exile in Australia following the Taliban takeover of their nation in August 2021.
Nonetheless, ECB chair Richard Thompson stated they’d play the match after discussions with the federal government, the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) and the gamers, including that the cricketing group alone can not sort out Afghanistan’s issues.
“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,” Thompson stated in an announcement.
“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.”
The Taliban say they respect ladies’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of non secular legislation and native customs and that they’re inner issues that needs to be addressed regionally.
Final week, Afghanistan’s exiled ladies cricketers had been named the primary beneficiaries of a brand new refugee fund began by the Marylebone Cricket Membership (MCC) and Thompson stated the ECB had donated 100,000 kilos ($124,350).
“We will continue to press the ICC to take further action, including ringfencing a meaningful portion of funding to support female players from Afghanistan to be able to access cricket,” he added.
Thompson additionally stated the ICC ought to contemplate recognising an Afghanistan ladies’s refugee crew whereas additionally supporting and creating displaced Afghan ladies “to thrive in non-playing roles” corresponding to coaches and directors.
“What is happening in Afghanistan is nothing short of gender apartheid,” he stated.
“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,” he added.
