The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has confirmed that England’s males’s workforce will play their scheduled ICC Males’s Champions Trophy 2025 fixture in opposition to Afghanistan, scheduled on February 26 in Lahore, regardless of rising requires a boycott as a result of extreme oppression of girls’s rights in Afghanistan underneath the Taliban regime. ECB Chair Richard Thompson acknowledged the widespread considerations over gender discrimination in Afghanistan and emphasised the significance of a coordinated worldwide response moderately than unilateral motion.
There have been growing calls from numerous sections, together with human rights activists and policymakers, for England to take a stand in opposition to Afghanistan’s participation within the Champions Trophy by refusing to play their scheduled match.
The considerations stem from the Taliban’s ban on ladies’s cricket and broader restrictions on ladies’s rights, which the ECB has termed “gender apartheid.”
Nevertheless, after cautious deliberation, the ECB Board has determined that boycotting the fixture wouldn’t be the simplest method to deal with the problem. As an alternative, the board believes {that a} collective worldwide effort from the cricketing neighborhood would have a larger influence.
“We stay of the view {that a} co-ordinated worldwide response by the cricketing neighborhood is the suitable means ahead and can obtain greater than any unilateral motion by the ECB in boycotting this match,” Thompson said.
He additional identified that for a lot of Afghan residents, watching their cricket workforce play offers one of many few remaining sources of pleasure, underscoring the complexity of the state of affairs.
Whereas confirming England’s participation within the match, the ECB reaffirmed its dedication to supporting feminine Afghan cricketers who’ve been displaced as a result of Taliban’s insurance policies.
Final week, the ECB donated 100,000 kilos to the International Refugee Cricket Fund, a joint initiative by the Marylebone Cricket Membership (MCC) and its charitable arm, the MCC Basis. This fund goals to help refugee cricketers worldwide, together with these from Afghanistan who’ve been compelled into exile.
The ECB has additionally urged the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) to take stronger motion, proposing measures reminiscent of allocating devoted funds to assist Afghan feminine cricketers in exile.
Recognising an Afghanistan Ladies’s Refugee Staff in order that displaced gamers can proceed competing internationally and creating pathways for Afghan ladies to take up teaching, administrative, and non-playing roles within the sport.
“The cricketing neighborhood can’t deal with all of Afghanistan’s issues,” Thompson acknowledged, “however we urge our worldwide companions to face collectively and display via our actions that we assist the ladies and ladies of Afghanistan.”
Requires England to boycott their match in opposition to Afghanistan gained momentum in early January following the submission of a cross-party letter, signed by almost 200 UK politicians, to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB). The letter urged England to refuse to play in protest in opposition to the Taliban regime’s suppression of girls’s rights.
Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi emphasised that England’s gamers ought to use their affect to drive change. In the meantime, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said that the federal government was partaking with worldwide companions on the matter. Nevertheless, Tradition Secretary Lisa Nandy later opposed a boycott, arguing that such actions are “counterproductive” and that the match ought to proceed.
Cricket South Africa (CSA) additionally rejected a request from a British Member of Parliament for the South Africa males’s workforce to boycott their match in opposition to Afghanistan within the Champions Trophy. The CSA mentioned the choice to ban Afghanistan needs to be taken by the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC).
(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
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