England ought to refuse to play the Champions Trophy cricket match in opposition to Afghanistan subsequent month in accordance with a letter signed by greater than 160 UK politicians.
The politicians need the England and Wales Cricket Board to take a stand in opposition to the Taliban regime’s assault on ladies’s rights and boycott the lads’s one-day worldwide in opposition to Afghanistan in Lahore, Pakistan, on February 26.
Feminine participation in sport has successfully been outlawed because the Taliban’s return to energy in 2021, a transfer that places the Afghanistan Cricket Board in contravention of Worldwide Cricket Council guidelines.
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As a result of Afghanistan’s males are nonetheless allowed to compete by the ICC, a strongly worded letter has emerged from the UK parliament pleading for the ECB to make its personal ethical objection.
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.
Ben Stokes of England. Getty
The assertion, addressed to ECB chief government Richard Gould, concludes: “We strongly urge the England males’s group gamers and officers to talk out in opposition to the horrific therapy of girls and women in Afghanistan beneath the Taliban.
“We additionally urge the ECB to think about a boycott of the upcoming match in opposition to Afghanistan… to ship a transparent sign that such grotesque abuses is not going to be tolerated.
“We should stand in opposition to intercourse apartheid and we implore the ECB to ship a agency message of solidarity and hope to Afghan ladies and women that their struggling has not been missed.”
Gould issued a swift response, reaffirming ECB rules whereas suggesting it favoured a uniform strategy from all member nations somewhat than performing alone.
“The ECB strongly condemns the therapy of girls and women in Afghanistan beneath the Taliban regime,” he mentioned.
“The ICC structure mandates that each one member nations are dedicated to the expansion and growth of girls’s cricket. In keeping with this dedication, the ECB has maintained its place of not scheduling any bilateral cricket matches in opposition to Afghanistan.
“A coordinated, ICC-wide strategy could be considerably extra impactful than unilateral actions by particular person members.
“We perceive the issues raised by those that imagine {that a} boycott of males’s cricket might inadvertently assist the Taliban’s efforts to suppress freedoms and isolate Afghan society. It’s essential to recognise the significance of cricket as a supply of hope and positivity for a lot of Afghans, together with these displaced from the nation.”
On the 2003 Cricket World Cup, England forfeited a sport in opposition to Zimbabwe in protest at Robert Mugabe’s regime.
