Statement on ICC ahead of the Champions Trophy

The International Cricket Council’s (ICC) credibility is at stake if it lets Afghanistan play in the Champions Trophy from 19 February.

I ask why the ICC is happy to ignore its own principles when it comes to Afghanistan.

The ICC’s anti-discrimination policy claims to be ‘one of the toughest in world sport’. It says it, ‘aspires to the highest ethical standards’ and is, ‘committed to protecting everyone in cricket from harassment, abuse and harm.’ The ICC’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU) claims ‘to protect all cricket played under the auspices of the ICC.’

And yet the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB) has effectively denied women the right to play. Does this not prove that it’s subject to political interference? That it is discriminatory and complicit in the Taliban regime’s policy of brutal misogyny.

In 2021 the Taliban raided the homes of female athletes, and many women cricketers fled Afghanistan for their safety. Now the Afghan women’s team is forced to live in exile in Australia.

Let that sink in – international cricket players fled for their lives, but Afghanistan is still allowed to play.

How can the ICC ever convince fans it’s a genuine champion of the women’s game now? This move will potentially alienate huge numbers of cricket fans. Who wants to support an organisation that appears to turn a blind eye to the Taliban’s appalling erosion of women’s rights?
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On its website the former chair of the ICC, Greg Barclay, says the organisation is committed to ‘using the power of cricket to build a better future.’ And in the past, the ICC has used its vast power to do just this.

From 2000 – 2005 Zimbabwe was suspended by the ICC for political interference in its cricket board.

From 1970 until 1991 South Africa was banned from international cricket because of its refusal to let non-white people play.

Last month, South Africa’s sports minister Gayton McKenzie said, ‘as a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world’.

The ICC is the international federation responsible for the global governance of cricket. Its position on South Africa during apartheid helped influence change in the country.
Why not take that stand now, for the women of Afghanistan?

Surely anything short of a ban tells the world the International Cricket Council is happy to ignore its own moral code – that it accepts political interference and extreme discrimination. Is this hypocrisy really the spirit of cricket it claims to uphold?