Cricket Australia defends Afghanistan boycott after hypocrisy accusation

Cricket Australia chief says he is ‘proud’ of the decision to cancel bilateral series against Afghanistan after outgoing ICC chair questions Australia’s ‘principles’.

Australia’s top cricket official has defended his country’s decision to play against Afghanistan at the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cups while cancelling all bilateral series against the South Asian side due to the Taliban’s crackdown on women’s sport.

Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Mike Baird said on Thursday he was “very proud of the position we’ve taken” after the departing boss of the ICC accused them of hypocrisy.

“We’ve taken a position, and we’re proudly standing up where we think we should,” Baird said.

“There’s all types of lines you can draw. We’ve drawn a line.”

Former ICC chairman Greg Barclay said Australia should have walked away from World Cup games against Afghanistan if they wanted to take a stand against the Taliban’s clampdown on women’s rights.

“If you want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup,” Barclay told the United Kingdom’s Daily Telegraph newspaper.

“Sure, it might cost you a semifinal place, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle,” he added.

Australia have in recent years refused to play bilateral series against Afghanistan, citing discomfort at the ongoing Taliban’s policies on women’s participation in sport.

But they continue to face Afghanistan in major tournaments and have played them at both the ICC’s one-day international World Cup in November 2023 in India and the ICC T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean in June.

CA indefinitely postponed a bilateral men’s T20 series against Afghanistan in March citing “deteriorating human rights for women and girls in the country under Taliban rule”.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board, in reply, urged CA to “respect and understand its position and look for alternative solutions rather than succumbing to external pressures and/or political influences”.

It was the third time since 2021 that Australia refused to play Afghanistan outside of international tournaments.

Australia had previously cancelled a one-off Test match and an ODI series for the same reason, but had then said it kept “the door ajar for future bilateral series on the proviso of improved conditions for women and girls in the country”.

Before the return of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s cricket board was slowly making progress in growing the game among women, contracting a small number of semi-professional players in 2020.

Many of those players eventually fled to Australia when the Taliban took over in 2021.

The teams’ last meeting came at the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup on June 22 and ended in a historic triumph for Afghanistan as they beat the then-defending champions by 21 runs in the Super Eight clash.

The result prompted wild celebrations, both in the Afghanistan camp at the ground and among fans back home.

“We have waited for this moment for a long time – at last, we beat Australia,” Gulbadin Naib, Afghanistan’s hero with the ball in the match, exclaimed after the win.

Afghanistan had come close to beating Australia at the 50-over World Cup in India on November 7, only for Glenn Maxwell to pull off a stunning heist with a double century and deny the men in blue.

Australia went on to win the World Cup by beating India in the final on November 19.

The teams could come face-to-face in two months at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, due to be hosted in Pakistan in February and March.

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Al Jazeera and news agencies