My experience playing in the Australian club cricket scene has shown that players have a resilient fighting spirit and will not surrender without a fight.
But when I heard Australia was ditching a highly anticipated cricket series against Afghanistan in the United Arab Emirates later this year, it tarnished the image I had built of Australian players. Not a good decision, mate!
After extensive consultation with relevant stakeholders, including the Australian government, Cricket Australia decided on Thursday that it was unable to proceed with the upcoming ICC Super League three-match Men’s ODI series between Australia and Afghanistan that was scheduled for the UAE in March 2023.
The decision, it said, followed the recent announcement by the Taliban of further restrictions on women’s and girls’ education and employment opportunities and their ability to access parks and gyms.
This highly charged and political statement from a sports body gets full marks for highlighting the plight of women and girls under the oppressive Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
But what is the objective? What do we, as a democratic society, get from it?
Is it helping the women and girls in any way beyond a few news headlines on the first couple of days? What about promotion of cricket and the immense love and respect for the game in Afghanistan, where cricket is literally the only good and hopeful thing?
Punishing Afghanistan’s cricket team for the Taliban’s policies truly projects the west’s miserable policies of ignoring and abandoning Afghanistan after the 20 years of failed democratisation experiment resulting in the return to power of the militants.
Afghanistan’s cricket team is the only Afghan entity left still hoisting the tricolour democratic flag of the war-ravaged country on an international level.
Cricket lovers in Kabul and other smaller towns in Afghanistan – and the large Afghan diaspora in Australia – were so eager to see the series take place after an earlier ditching of a one-off Test between the two sides in November 2021.
The frustration is evident with the immediate reactions coming from the Afghan side.
Did Cricket Australia @CricketAus imposed any restrictions on their cricket team/players bcaz of the war crimes committed by their soldiers in #Afghanistan? If not, their today’s statement makes no sense! It’s just a show off and pure double standards.
— Bashir Gharwal غروال (@bashir_gharwall) January 12, 2023
via @bbcworldservice pic.twitter.com/J7o3Mti6B1
The decision opens a Pandora’s box about who did what and why Afghanistan fell back to the Taliban after thousands of deaths and destruction on a mammoth scale for 20 years. Is it Cricket Australia’s domain to indulge in these kinds of affairs?
It’s true that Afghanistan has been unable to provide equal opportunity for women and girls not only in cricket but in all other walks of life. But the question remains: is this solved by abandoning and isolating the country further?
The proposed matches in the UAE could have been an ideal platform to raise good points about gender equality and broader human rights in Afghanistan for three solid days on global platforms – with live TV broadcast and media coverage. Players and commentators could have done it with actions and words. Afghanistan needs international attention more than ever before to avert the worst humanitarian crisis it is undergoing.
Fading attention to the plight of hunger and oppression there is devastating.
The Afghan men’s side has certainly brought a fabulous new life and flare to the game. Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi have become household names The great Shane Warne continues to inspire a generation of Afghan spinners. The late Dean Jones was treated like royalty during his visit to Kabul in 2017.
There are so many young and bright Afghan cricket stars on the horizon that the world saw during the ICC T20 Cricket World Cup here in Australia.
Cricket Australia’s unnecessary meddling in politics is doing much more harm than good – not only to international cricket but to the men and women of Afghanistan who want to see their national team rise and shine and lead them out of the darkness.
Just like a good and timely review, Cricket Australia still has the chance to reverse its original decision and give Afghanistan cricket a chance for survival and growth.
Shadi Khan Saif is an Afghan journalist based in Melbourne
