No alternative Afghanistan Test all but cancelled by Cricket Australia

By Daniel BrettigUpdated September 9, 2021 â€" 12.40pmfirst published at 12.01pm

Australia’s inaugural Test match against Afghanistan is as good as cancelled after Cricket Australia stated it “would have no alternative” but to scupper the game if the Taliban’s claims it will not support women’s cricket are substantiated.

Ever since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul last month, the Afghanistan Cricket Board had flagged the likelihood that its fledgling women’s cricket program was under threat, a view seemingly confirmed on Wednesday when the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, told SBS that “I don’t think women will be allowed to play cricket” because it was “not necessary” for them to do so.

“Driving the growth of women’s cricket globally is incredibly important to Cricket Australia. Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level,” A CA spokesperson said.

“If recent media reports that women’s cricket will not be supported in Afghanistan are substantiated, Cricket Australia would have no alternative but to not host Afghanistan for the proposed Test Match due to be played in Hobart. We thank the Australian and Tasmanian governments for their support on this important issue.”

The federal Minister for Sport, Richard Colbeck, had stated earlier on Thursday that the government could not support sporting contact with any nation that forbade women from playing sport.

“We’ve made a clear statement that we don’t support excluding women from sport at any level,” Colbeck told SEN.

“Our perspective has been passed on to the ICC, and we’ve urged other global sporting authorities to take a stand.

“This is tragic for the great cricketers coming out of Afghanistan. We’ve celebrated them in the Big Bash, their women’s team only recently gained Test status. It’s deeply concerning the Taliban have taken this approach.“

Colbeck had, however, suggested that Afghanistan men’s and women’s cricketers would be welcomed to play in Australia, provided they did not take the field under the flag of the Taliban.

Numerous national sporting teams have taken this approach in the past, most recently the Russian athletes at the Tokyo Olympics.

“We will welcome any individual sportswomen or men from Afghanistan, but not under the Taliban flag,” Colbeck said. “We need to work with international sporting authorities to see how we can make that work ... we may seem them playing sport under a different flag, for example.”

Before the Hobart Test match, the Afghanistan men’s team has qualified to appear at the Twenty20 World Cup in the UAE, an ICC global event. The game’s governing body had stated overnight that it was concerned by recent reports about the Taliban’s intention to discontinue the women’s game in Afghanistan, and would contemplate the country’s status as a full member of the ICC at its next board meeting in mid-November.

“The ICC is committed to the long-term growth of women’s cricket and despite the cultural and religious challenges in Afghanistan, steady progress had been made in this area since Afghanistan’s admission as a full member in 2017,” an ICC spokesperson said.

“The ICC has been monitoring the changing situation in Afghanistan and is concerned to note recent media reports that women will no longer be allowed to play cricket. This and the impact it will have on the continued development of the game will be discussed by the ICC Board at its next meeting.“

Afghanistan were permitted to become a full member of the ICC, with Test match playing status, in 2017 in spite of the fact it did not at that point have a functioning women’s cricket program. At the time the ICC’s board accepted the Afghanistan Cricket Board’s submission that religious and cultural barriers had made it difficult to build a women’s team.

However, the ICC then worked closely with the Afghanistan Cricket Board over ensuing years to try to assemble building blocks for the national women’s team, culminating in the assembly of a 25-player contract list late in 2020.

Suspension of a nation from the ICC does not necessarily mean the ceasing of all cricket contact: nations such as Zimbabwe, Nepal and the United States have all been temporarily suspended in recent years for various reasons.

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Daniel Brettig is The Age's chief cricket writer and the author of several books on cricket.Connect via Twitter.

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