England’s cricket board proposes an ‘ICC-wide’ response towards Afghanistan over the Taliban’s crackdown on girls in response to the MPs’ letter.
A gaggle of British politicians has urged England to boycott their ICC Champions Trophy cricket match towards Afghanistan subsequent month, saying the nation’s cricket officers must take a stand towards the Taliban’s crackdown on girls.
A letter signed by greater than 160 MPs on Monday known as for England’s gamers and officers to talk out towards the remedy of girls and ladies in Afghanistan.
“We additionally urge the ECB to contemplate a boycott of the upcoming match towards Afghanistan within the ICC Champions Trophy Group stage on February 26 to ship a transparent sign that such grotesque abuses won’t be tolerated,” the letter added.
Penned by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi and signed by a cross-party group from the Home of Commons and Home of Lords together with Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn, it raises the “insidious dystopia” unfolding in Afghanistan.
Since its return to energy in 2021, the Taliban has clamped down on the rights of girls and ladies, limiting their entry to schooling and work, curbing their freedom of motion, and forcing them to cowl their faces and our bodies.
Girls and ladies have additionally been barred from sports activities and gymnasiums, a breach of the Worldwide Cricket Council’s (ICC) guidelines.
The Afghanistan girls’s group was additionally disbanded, with a number of members fleeing the nation after 2021.
The England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) chief govt Richard Gould responded to the politicians’ letter by calling for a uniform strategy from all member nations in direction of Afghanistan’s participation in worldwide cricket.
“The ECB strongly condemns the remedy of girls and ladies in Afghanistan below the Taliban regime,” Gould mentioned.
“The ICC Structure mandates that every one member nations are dedicated to the expansion and growth of girls’s cricket. According to this dedication, the ECB has maintained its place of not scheduling any bilateral cricket matches towards Afghanistan.
“Whereas there has not been a consensus on additional worldwide motion throughout the ICC, the ECB will proceed to actively advocate for such measures. A coordinated, ICC-wide strategy could be considerably extra impactful than unilateral actions by particular person members.”
Australia have lately refused to play bilateral sequence towards Afghanistan on three events, citing discomfort on the Taliban’s ongoing insurance policies on girls’s participation in sport however they proceed to face the South Asian nation in main tournaments.
Cricket Australia has cited “deteriorating human rights for girls and ladies within the nation below Taliban rule” as the rationale behind its transfer to cancel the sequence, with CA chairman Mike Baird saying he was “very happy with the place we’ve taken”.
“We’ve taken a place, and we’re proudly standing up the place we predict we must always,” Baird mentioned.
“There’s all sorts of strains you may draw. We’ve drawn a line.”
In December, Afghanistan’s high cricket stars Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi urged the Taliban to rethink its ban on girls’s entry to medical schooling and coaching, terming the transfer “deeply unjust”.
Rashid, 26, a world icon of the game, mentioned the nation “desperately wants professionals in each discipline, particularly the medical sector”.
T20 captain Rashid mentioned he was talking out in assist of his Afghan “sisters and moms” and believed the choice would profoundly have an effect on Afghan girls’s future in addition to “the broader cloth of society”.
Afghanistan have turn out to be a larger drive in white-ball cricket lately, rising to eighth within the ODI world rankings.
They beat England on the 50-over World Cup in 2023 and reached the semifinals of the T20 World Cup 2024, eliminating Australia within the course of.
Afghanistan are positioned in Group B – together with England, Australia and South Africa – for the eight-team Champions Trophy event that will probably be performed in Pakistan and Dubai from February 19 to March 9.
Dubai will host India’s matches after the T20 world champions’ refusal to journey to Pakistan.
