England’s cricket team has continued to resist pressure to boycott next month’s Champions Trophy tie against Afghanistan with their preference for collective action backed by the UK government.
England, like Australia, will not play bilateral cricket against Afghanistan men while their women’s team does not exist, but will play them in global tournaments such as the Champions Trophy.
Fielding a women’s team is an International Cricket Council (ICC) requirement but Afghanistan men have been permitted to play in three global tournaments in the past 18 months despite this being flouted.
A cross-party group of more than 160 MPs and peers signed a letter urging the England and Wales Cricket Board to sit out next month’s fixture at the Champions Trophy in Lahore as a moral objection to the Taliban regime’s ongoing assault on women’s rights in the country.
Australia, where many of the female former Afghanistan cricketers fled to, are in the same Champions Trophy group.
ECB chief executive Richard Gould responded by saying he would “actively advocate” collective action rather than take a unilateral stand by forfeiting the game.
That stance has now received political backing from Number 10, with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s official spokesman suggesting the onus remained with the sport’s governing body.
“The ICC should clearly deliver on their own rules and make sure that they’re supporting women’s cricket as the ECB do,” said the PM’s spokesman.
“That’s why we support the fact that the ECB are making representations to the ICC on this issue.”
The game is scheduled for February 26.
