The global cricket industry is extremely divided over whether the Afghanistan Men’s team should be allowed to compete in the ICC Champions Trophy in Pakistan and the UAE in February and March.
cricexec’s industry poll on the issue this week tallied a virtual even split: 51% in favor of Afghanistan’s participation, and 49% against it.
This is consistent with the debate taking place in the world dating back over the last few years, but intensifying in recent weeks and months.
Recent history
At the heart of the matter is the Taliban’s recent resurgence and the resulting deterioration of women’s rights in the country.
Early in 2021, top Afghanistan women cricket players received national contracts from the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) for the first time.
However, the Taliban took power in Afghanistan in August 2021 after almost two decades, as the US withdrew its troops from the country.
The Taliban quickly began restricting the rights and freedoms of women, barring all females from secondary school and beyond, and ending all female participation in sports.
The Afghanistan Women’s Cricket team fled to Australia before they could play their first game. They have been in exile in Australia and in limbo for the past few years.
Australia, notably, was the first country to refuse to hold bilateral series between their Men’s team and the Afghanistan’s in protest over Afghanistan’s policies.
After the Afghan Men’s success at the recent ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, where they reached the semifinals, the Afghan women sent a letter to the ICC last July 2024, asking for a women’s refugee team. In it they wrote:
“Our goals in having a refugee team are to develop and showcase our talent, give hope to the women remaining in Afghanistan, and to draw attention to the challenges women of Afghanistan face.”
Heightening awareness and outcry
Even before this development, calls for action were growing.
In the middle of the Men’s T20 World Cup and the Afghanistan Men’s success story, ESPN’s Sidharth Monga wrote a piece calling attention to the issue.
But after the open letter from the Afghanistan women this issue began receiving even more attention from throughout the industry.
In recent months, political leaders and activists in multiple test-playing nations have called for their countries to boycott the Afghanistan Men’s team, including at the Champions Trophy.
160 English politicians signed a letter urging the ECB to boycott the England-Afghanistan match at the Champions Trophy. The ECB, in turn, called on the ICC to sanction the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB).
In South Africa, Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie endorsed calls to boycott Afghanistan at the ICC Champions Trophy.
Different perspectives on the right approach
Today, while there is consensus in the industry that the current situation with respect to Afghan women in general, and with cricket in particular, is unacceptable, there is deep division over how to tackle it. This division even exists within the ICC’s 17-member board.
The broadly advocated approaches are the typical ones seen in this type of situation: boycott, keep politics, out of sport, and constructive engagement.
Boycott
Those advocating a boycott approach liken this situation to apartheid and emphasize the moral imperative to act and to use the leverage the sport has to put pressure on the government.
As South African Minister McKenzie puts it:
“As a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world.”
England’s Women’s Rights Network (WRN) echoes this:
“Pride in the team shirt includes pride in your country’s record on standing up for human rights and against dictators who bask in the kudos of sporting success. What is happening to the women of Afghanistan is appalling. Any sportsman of conscience should do what is right: Boycott Afghanistan.”
The letter signed by 160 of England’s political leaders argues:
“We must stand against sex apartheid and we implore the ECB to deliver a firm message of solidarity and hope to Afghan women and girls that their suffering has not been overlooked.”
And the ECB’s official position calls on the ICC to collectively sanction the ACB until changes are made, including potential suspension, withholding funding, supporting the exiled Afghan women, and reforming the ICC’s Afghan Working group to include female members. According to the ECB’s Richard Gould:
“What is taking place in Afghanistan is the worst violation of women’s rights anywhere on earth. If we do not take the actions that are within our power to take – whilst recognising that much is not in our power – we are all complicit and have failed the privilege that comes with holding a global leadership position in our sport.”
Keep politics out of sport
Some take the classical position that politics should stay separate from sport entirely and essentially argue that people who live in glass houses should not be throwing stones
As one cricexec reader from the UK wrote:
“If we allowed/disallowed teams based on a country’s internal/ foreign policies, there’d be a few more that shouldn’t be playing, including our own.
Punishing a team for anything unrelated to the sport is shallow, cancel culture and failed diplomacy.”
Pragmatic engagement
The third broad perspective seems to be that cricket is limited in its ability (or its place) to determine the internal policies of a country and it is best to engage constructively with the Afghan government and the ACB to gradually shape change.
This is echoed in the ICC’s official statement on the matter:
“The ICC remains closely engaged with the situation in Afghanistan and continues to collaborate with our members. We are committed to leveraging our influence constructively to support the ACB in fostering cricket development and ensuring playing opportunities for both men and women in Afghanistan. The ICC has established an Afghanistan Cricket Task Force, chaired by deputy chairman Mr. Imran Khwaja, who will lead the ongoing dialogue on this matter.”
Those who share this perspective also note it is unfair and counterproductive to harm the Afghanistan Men’s team players and their careers, when they themselves have advocated for women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Questioning the “pragmatic” approach
However, many question not only this pragmatic approach but the motives of its advocates.
As Monga wrote in his piece last summer:
“That the Taliban even allows cricket is not because someone there appreciates the legbreak bowled with a wrong’un release, but because the sport is popular among Pakhtun men, a source of their power. To the Taliban, cricket is just a pawn in the public image game. Letting them play is nothing short of sportwashing, not so much in the eyes of the world as inside Afghanistan.
It also says that the Taliban cares about how it is perceived, if only a little bit. That it is cynical to think cricket embargos won’t make any difference. They may not succeed in forcing the Taliban to let women play or go to university but it will not be nothing. That if cricket turns its back on the Afghanistan men’s team, it is not penalising Rashid Khan but the Taliban. He and his team-mates are a significant collateral damage but not as big as the one being caused to half of their population.
Many a potential South African great was denied an international cricket career not because they were individually deemed to be racist but because Apartheid was evil. Most of them continued to play county cricket. Now whether cricket played a significant role in the fall of Apartheid is debatable, but it is undeniable that it played a part in piling on the pressure on the government.”
Tristan Lavalette, writing in Forbes, strikes a similar note:
“But few have the appetite to halt cricket’s ultimate feel-good story, a national team that provides hope and inspiration to such a beaten-down nation. It is a rise that has been heavily pushed by the ICC’s marketers in a rare tale of cricket spreading beyond traditional borders.”
He goes onto note another reason for the lack of action:
“Mid-last year, a push to set aside a percentage of Afghanistan revenue to fund women’s cricket failed to materialize. The high cost of Afghanistan’s men’s team was cited as a primary reason why funds couldn’t be deducted from the ACB’s distribution.
Afghanistan do not play cricket at home due to security issues and have been mostly based in the UAE and India. Their relationship with the sport’s undisputed (power) India have deeper government links that seem to suggest Afghanistan’s status will remain secure.”
No resolution in sight
What we know for sure is that this issue will stay in the headlines in the coming months and beyond.
The Afghanistan Women’s XI will play a match in Melbourne at the MCG on January 30 before the opening day of the Women’s Ashes test there.
And as the Champions Trophy draws nearer, the debate will surely continue.
Name of Author: Zee Zaidi
