UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan Richard Bennett has urged the BCCI to invite the Afghanistan women’s cricket team to India, identifying cricket as a potential way for the country to demonstrate its support for equal rights for Afghan women and girls. His proposal draws on the sporting relationship between India and Afghanistan, whose men’s national team continues to compete against India and other international opponents while women remain unable to play the sport inside Afghanistan.
The suggestion comes against a wider backdrop of India’s continued engagement with Afghanistan. India does not officially recognise the Taliban but has continued providing humanitarian assistance, including food aid and support following natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, while educational opportunities and scholarships in India have also continued.
Bennett calls for stronger stance on women’s rights
Bennett believes India could combine that engagement with a stronger public position on the human-rights situation facing women and girls in Afghanistan.
VIDEO | "India's role in Afghanistan significant; would suggest Indian cricket board invite Afghan women's team to India", says UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett pic.twitter.com/MylteABpYS
— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) August 17, 2026
Speaking to PTI, Bennett said: “I would say it would be helpful if India would speak out a little bit more strongly on the human rights violation, particularly those of women and girls.”
India’s interests in Afghanistan include stability, counter-terrorism and trade, alongside its ability to exercise soft power in the region. Bennett noted that India has previously addressed human-rights concerns, including around the Taliban Foreign Minister’s visit, but argued that its approach could place greater emphasis on principles alongside pragmatic engagement.
He added: “It has done so, and it did so when the Taliban foreign minister visited, but more of that, I think, would be helpful to position itself around what I think it calls pragmatic engagement, pragmatic but principled, and kind of increasing the principled side would be good.”
Cricket offers a symbolic route for engagement
Within that broader relationship, Bennett has identified cricket as a specific area where India could take action. The sport provides a strong common connection between the countries, while the contrasting opportunities available to Afghanistan’s male and female players have made cricket part of the wider debate around women’s rights.
Bennett recently saw the Afghanistan women’s team during a visit to the UK, where the players were touring and taking part in matches. Their continued participation outside Afghanistan provided the backdrop to his proposal for the BCCI to bring the team to India.
Bennett said: “So my suggestion would be for the Indian cricket board to invite the Afghanistan women’s team to come and visit India.”
Such an invitation would add another potential avenue of support for a team whose future has increasingly become an issue for cricket’s international governing bodies. The players have continued seeking opportunities to play while efforts progress around their longer-term status and support within the global game.
BCCI already part of wider support effort
The BCCI is already involved in the international framework supporting Afghanistan’s women cricketers. As previously reported by cricexec, the ICC is set to consider extending its support programme for the Afghanistan women’s refugee team after the proposal secured backing from the BCCI, Cricket Australia and the England and Wales Cricket Board.
The programme supports players who left Afghanistan following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 and are now based in Australia. Discussions have included the possibility of funding through to 2032, while the ICC is expected to assume a larger operational and financial role as the initiative develops.
Financial support, however, remains separate from the unresolved question of official international recognition. A proposal prepared by Chair of the ICC Women’s Cricket Committee Clare Connor includes a recommendation that the team be allowed to play official international cricket, while the players have also engaged directly with ICC leadership over their future.
Bennett has previously pressed ICC for recognition
Bennett’s appeal to the BCCI follows his earlier intervention over the team’s status at the global governing-body level. As reported previously by cricexec, he urged the ICC in July to formally recognise the Afghanistan women’s cricket team and provide sustained support as its existing funding arrangement approached its deadline.
That intervention came as ICC officials gathered for their annual meeting in Edinburgh. Bennett pointed to the treatment of Afghan women footballers as an example of how international sport could create a pathway for displaced athletes, while calling for cricket to find its own solution for a team that has remained without official national status since the Taliban returned to power.
His latest proposal shifts the immediate focus from the ICC’s recognition process to what India and the BCCI could do directly. Rather than addressing the team’s formal international status, Bennett’s suggestion centres on giving the players an opportunity to visit one of world cricket’s most influential countries.
Invitation could carry message beyond cricket
The significance Bennett attaches to a potential BCCI invitation extends beyond providing another opportunity for the team to play. He views the initiative as a way to encourage Afghan women while using cricket to communicate India’s position on equal participation.
Bennett stated: “It would send a message symbolically that we share this love of this sport, and that we believe that women should be playing along with men, and it would not be too difficult, and it would be very encouraging to Afghan women if that happened. And it would also send a message about India’s position on this issue of equal rights for women and girls to the Taliban as well.”
The proposal adds a new dimension to the continuing effort to secure a future for Afghanistan’s women cricketers. With the BCCI already backing the wider ICC support programme and the question of international recognition still under consideration, Bennett is now calling for India’s cricket board to complement that institutional involvement by inviting the team to the country.
