England will play their ICC Champions Trophy match in opposition to Afghanistan regardless of requires the ECB to boycott the fixture.
A bunch of greater than 160 politicians signed a letter encouraging England to boycott the sport in Lahore on Wednesday February 26 and take a stand in opposition to the Taliban regime’s assault on girls’s rights.
Feminine participation in sport has successfully been outlawed because the Taliban’s return to energy in 2021, a transfer that places the Afghanistan Cricket Board in direct contravention of the principles of the ICC, cricket’s governing physique.
ECB chair Richard Thompson described the state of affairs in Afghanistan as “nothing short of gender apartheid”, which solely a co-ordinated worldwide response may sort out, not a unilateral withdrawal from the fixture.
“Today the ECB board discussed recent calls for England to boycott the forthcoming men’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan in the wake of the widespread violation of women’s rights in the country under the Taliban,” Thompson stated on Thursday.
“What is occurring in Afghanistan is nothing in need of gender apartheid. At a cricketing stage, when girls’s and women’ cricket is rising quickly world wide it’s heartbreaking that these rising up in Afghanistan are denied this chance, however the appalling oppression of girls and women by the Taliban goes a lot additional.
“The board recognises there are totally different views and opinions on the difficulty of boycotting the match and has listened rigorously. We’ve been in shut contact with the Authorities, the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC), our England Males’s gamers and different stakeholders to debate this matter, in addition to contemplating how finest the ECB can assist these girls cricketers who’ve fled Afghanistan.
“Following this, we remain of the view that a co-ordinated international response by the cricketing community is the appropriate way forward, and will achieve more than any unilateral action by the ECB in boycotting this match, while we have also heard that for many ordinary Afghans, watching their cricket team is one of the few remaining sources of enjoyment. As such, we can confirm that we will play this fixture.”
Watch each match from the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy stay on Sky Sports activities between February 19 and March 9 or stream with NOW.
