Culture Secretary says England cricket match against Afghanistan SHOULD go ahead as a boycott over Taliban's 'medieval' treatment of women would be 'counterproductive'
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England's cricket match against Afghanistan should go ahead despite fury at the Taliban's treatment of women, the Culture Secretary said today. Lisa Nandy argued that a boycott of the Champions Trophy one-day game in Pakistan next month would be 'counterproductive'.
![[She urged the governing body to consider boycotting the match in protest at the 'dystopia' in the country, and use it to register a protest against the 'abhorrent oppression'.]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/10/08/93790805-14269905-She_urged_the_governing_body_to_consider_boycotting_the_match_in-a-12_1736497793374.jpg)
The minister used a round of interviews this morning to back the tie happening even though more than 160 MPs and peers have urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to take a stand. 'I do think it should go ahead,' Lisa Nandy told BBC Breakfast. 'I'm instinctively very cautious about boycotts in sports, partly because I think they're counterproductive.
![[MPs and peers from across across Westminster are backing the campaign by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi ahead of the Champions Trophy one-day game in Pakistan next month]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/10/08/93789621-14269905-MPs_and_peers_from_across_across_Westminster_are_backing_the_cam-a-13_1736497799455.jpg)
'I think they deny sports fans the opportunity that they love, and they can also very much penalise the athletes and the sports people who work very, very hard to reach the top of their game and then they're denied the opportunities to compete. 'They are not the people that we want to penalise for the appalling actions of the Taliban against women and girls.'.
![[In her letter, Ms Antoniazzi wrote: 'As the world watches this insidious dystopia unfold, women in Afghanistan find themselves erased from the most innocent of daily activities, imprisoned at home, risking torture and public execution if they protest or do not comply.]](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2025/01/10/08/93790851-14269905-In_her_letter_Ms_Antoniazzi_wrote_As_the_world_watches_this_insi-a-14_1736497807636.jpg)
However, Ms Nandy insisted the UK should not be 'rolling out the red carpet' at the event, adding: 'When China hosted the Winter Olympics, I was very vocal, many of us were very vocal about making sure that we didn't send dignitaries to that event, that we didn't give them the PR coup that they were looking for when they were forcibly incarcerating the Uighur in Xinjiang.'.
