Heather Knight lends voice to plight of Afghanistan women’s team
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England captain Heather Knight says that the plight of the Afghanistan women’s team has been forgotten and called for a renewed focus on giving the cricketers in exile “a voice”, amid the current controversy surrounding England men’s upcoming Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan.
England are due to play Afghanistan on 26 February in Lahore and have faced calls from a number of campaign groups to boycott the match, in response to the Taliban government’s crackdown on women’s rights since returning to power in August 2021. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and CEO of the England and Wales Cricket Board, Richard Gould, have both said the onus should be on the ICC to take unified action.
Knight, though, used her eve-of-Ashes press conference to argue in favour of greater support for the exiled Afghanistan women’s team. Of 25 contracted Afghanistan players, 22 fled to Australia when the Taliban returned to power, and an Afghanistan women’s XI are scheduled to play a T20 match against a Cricket Without Boarders Charity XI on 30 January at the Junction Oval in Melbourne. Knight said she hoped to meet some of the players next week, following England’s Ashes ODI at the ground.
“It’s a really good thing that people are talking about it and it’s in the news again, because honestly I think it’s been forgotten a lot,” Knight said. “It’s a really complex situation but the biggest positive can be those group of women being talked about. They’re playing a game at Junction Oval on the first day of our Test match – I’d love to see that broadcast far and wide.
