 "Champions Trophy 2025: Prominent anti-apartheid activist asks South Africa to protest Afghanistan match")
The call to boycott Afghanistan’s men’s cricket team at the upcoming 2025 Champions Trophy continues to grow. After 160 UK politicians and a former Olympian urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to boycott the Afghan team as a protest against the erosion of women’s rights under the Taliban regime , veteran anti-apartheid campaigner Peter Hain has joined the appeal. Hain has asked South Africa to raise the Taliban’s ban on women’s cricket with the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Hain, renowned for his anti-apartheid activism and his opposition to South African rugby and cricket teams over racial exclusion in the 1970s, compared the Taliban’s treatment of women to apartheid. He urged Cricket South Africa CEO Pholetsi Moseki to protest Afghanistan’s participation in the Champions Trophy, according to The Guardian.
Will South Africa boycott Afghanistan at Champions Trophy?
“Having struggled long and hard for black and brown cricketers to represent their country like whites did exclusively for nearly a century, I hope that post-apartheid South African cricket will press for similar rights for all women in world cricket,” Hain wrote to Moseki. “Will South African cricket please raise the plight of Afghan women cricketers in the ICC and express firm solidarity with Afghan women and girls who wish to play?”
Hain in his letter to Cricket South Africa also reminded the governing body that the Taliban disbanded women’s cricket teams after returning to power in 2021.
“Upon regaining control of Afghanistan in August 2021, one of the Taliban government’s first acts was to ban women from sport,” writes Hain. “They raided the homes of female athletes, some of whom were forced to burn their kits to avoid being identified. The national Afghan women’s cricket team was disbanded and forced to flee the country; it is now in exile.
“That is a direct contravention of ICC rules requiring all member Test nations to support and fund women’s cricket. The men’s cricket team is still allowed to compete internationally, while their women’s team is denied the same right.”
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South Africa is scheduled to play against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy 2025 on 21 February in Karachi.
While Cricket South Africa is still to officially announce their views on the participation of the Afghanistan team in the Champions Trophy, the ECB has already refused to boycott their 26 February match despite Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi sending CEO Richard Gould a letter urging the England team to take a tough stand. The letter was signed by 160 politicians including Nigel Farage and Jeremy Corbyn.
England wants ICC to take action against Afghanistan
Gould condemned the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban government but said that an ICC-wide approach would be needed against the Asian country and unilateral action from one nation would not be impactful.
“The ECB strongly condemns the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime,” ECB CEO Gould said. “The ICC constitution mandates that all member nations are committed to the growth and development of women’s cricket. In line with this commitment, the ECB has maintained its position of not scheduling any bilateral cricket matches against Afghanistan.”
“While there has not been a consensus on further international action within the ICC, the ECB will continue to actively advocate for such measures. A coordinated, ICC-wide approach would be significantly more impactful than unilateral actions by individual members."
UK PM Keir Starmer, meanwhile, has asked ICC to follow its own rule which states that the full members would be suspended if they fail to field men’s and women’s teams.
“The ICC should clearly deliver on their own rules and make sure that they’re supporting women’s cricket as the ECB do. That’s why we support the fact that the ECB are making representations to the ICC on this issue,” the British prime minister’s spokesperson said.
ICC to take no action against Afghanistan
Meanwhile, it has been reported by the Indian Express that the ICC is not going to take any action against the Afghanistan Cricket Board or the men’s team despite the growing concern over the Taliban’s treatment of women in its country.
The ICC, led by Jay Shah, reportedly believes that the Afghanistan Cricket Board is simply adhering to directives from the Taliban regime and lacks the autonomy to revive women’s cricket.
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