Australia Cricket Postpones Afghanistan T20Is Due To Worsening Women’s Human Rights
New Delhi: Citing the worsening state of women’s and girls’ human rights in Afghanistan, Cricket Australia (CA) announced on Tuesday that they will be delaying their men’s Twenty20 International series against that country until August of this year.
Afghanistan was scheduled to host the three-match series, with games anticipated to take place in the United Arab Emirates.
A one-off Test match between Afghanistan and CA was previously cancelled. The match was supposed to take place in Hobart in November 2021. After a noticeable decline in women’s and girls’ human rights in Afghanistan, it later announced that the ODI series would be postponed until March 2023, adding that “we would continue to engage with the Afghanistan Cricket Board in anticipation of improved conditions for women and girls in the country.”
“CA has maintained its consultation with the Australian Government about the situation in Afghanistan during the last 12 months. The recommendation from the administration is that things are becoming worse in Afghanistan for women and girls. We have thus stuck to our original stance and decided to put off the bilateral series against Afghanistan,” a statement from CA said.
“CA will continue to actively engage the International Cricket Council and work closely with the Afghanistan Cricket Board to determine what steps could be taken to support the resumption of bilateral matches in the future,” the statement continued. “CA continues its strong commitment to supporting participation by women and girls in cricket around the world.”
For the third time, CA has turned down the opportunity to play Afghanistan. Nonetheless, Australia kept up its matches with Afghanistan in ICC-hosted competitions; the most recent one being the 2023 men’s ODI World Cup in India.
