England will play their Champions Trophy match in opposition to Afghanistan later this month, England’s cricket board (ECB) stated on Thursday, regardless of calls to boycott the sport in response to the Taliban authorities’s crackdown on girls’s rights.
Final month, a bunch of British lawmakers urged England to boycott the Champions Trophy group stage match in opposition to Afghanistan which will probably be held in Lahore on February 26.
South Africa Sports activities Minister Gayton McKenzie additionally supported requires a boycott.
Afghanistan had 25 contracted girls gamers in 2020, however most are actually dwelling 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 neighborhood alone can not sort out Afghanistan’s issues.
“We stay of the view {that a} co-ordinated worldwide response by the cricketing neighborhood is the suitable manner ahead and can obtain greater than any unilateral motion by the ECB in boycotting this match,” Thompson stated in a press release.
“We’ve additionally heard that for a lot of extraordinary Afghans, watching their cricket staff is likely one of the few remaining sources of enjoyment. As such, we are able to verify that we are going to play this fixture.”
Story continues beneath this advert
The Taliban say they respect girls’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic legislation and native customs and that they’re inside issues that needs to be addressed regionally.
Final week, Afghanistan’s exiled girls cricketers had been named the primary beneficiaries of a brand new refugee fund began by the Marylebone Cricket Membership and Thompson stated the ECB had donated 100,000 kilos ($124,350).
“We’ll proceed to press the ICC to take additional motion, together with ringfencing a significant portion of funding to assist feminine gamers from Afghanistan to have the ability to entry cricket,” he added.
Thompson additionally stated the ICC ought to think about recognising an Afghanistan girls’s refugee staff whereas additionally supporting and creating displaced Afghan girls “to thrive in non-playing roles” comparable to coaches and directors.
Story continues beneath this advert
“What is going on in Afghanistan is nothing wanting gender apartheid,” he stated.
“At a cricketing degree, when girls’s and ladies’ cricket is rising quickly all over the world, it’s heartbreaking that these rising up in Afghanistan are denied this chance.”