Melbourne: Cricket Australia (CA) has announced that the one-off Test match against Afghanistan will be canceled if new Taliban regulations prohibiting women from participating in sports especially cricket are upheld. According to Taliban rulers, women in sports go against their religious convictions.
CA has issued a statement indicating that if the Taliban’s reported stance continues unchanged, the tour will be scrapped.
The statement stated that “Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level. 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.”
Afghanistan was scheduled to visit Australia and play a Test match in Hobart’s Blundstone Arena. However, given the current conditions, the brief tour appears to be in peril, despite the Taliban’s approval for the men’s team to engage in international matches.
An update on the proposed Test match against Afghanistan ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/p2q5LOJMlw
— Cricket Australia (@CricketAus) September 9, 2021
Australia’s Sports Minister Richard Colbeck said the Taliban’s position was “deeply concerning”.
“Excluding women from the sport at any level is unacceptable,” he said in a statement carried by SBS.
Last day, the Taliban had enforced a sports ban on Afghan women, claiming that this would expose their bodies to the media. Ahmadullah Wasiq, the deputy head of the fundamentalist group’s Cultural Commission, said that sports were unnecessary for women of the country.
“I don’t think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women should play cricket,” SBS quoted the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, as saying.
“In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this. It is the media era, and there will be photos and videos, and then people watch it. Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed,” he added.
Meanwhile, the men’s team’s ODI series against Pakistan was also postponed due to player mental health issues as well as travel constraints. Despite having no Taliban limitations, the series was moved from the UAE to Sri Lanka, but it was canceled.
To date, Afghanistan men’s team only competed in five Test matches in their history.
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