Cricket Australia is all set to officially postpone the one-off Test Afghanistan later this week.
“We’ve made our position very clear that we support cricket as a sport for both women and men,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Cricket Australia CEO Nick Hockley as saying.
“We’ve been trying to get clarity on what the situation is. It’s obviously a difficult, complex, and challenging situation,” said Mr Hockley.
“It’s most likely we’ll postpone the Hobart Test match until such time that there is greater clarity, and we’ll be making some announcements in the coming days,”
he added.
Sydney based Mr X (Who doesn’t want to reveal his identity) is a security consultant working closely with multiple agencies on the Afghanistan situation.
He told The Australia Today, “Cricket Australia has been briefed on potential asylum applications in Australia by a large part of Afghanistan’s test team and support staff once they finish the one-off Test in Hobart.”
“In light of ICC’s go-ahead to Afghanistan to participate in upcoming T20 World Cup, I think this briefing will have a big a role on Cricket Australia’s decision about Hobart Test,”
explained Mr X.
On Sunday, the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) Acting CEO Geoff Allardice had said that the apex cricket body is keeping a table on change of regime in Afghanistan, however, he confirmed that Afghanistan will indeed take part in the T20 World Cup.
“They are a full member of the ICC and their team is preparing for the T20 World Cup. In terms of their preparation for the event, it is proceeding as planned,”
he added.
“Yes, when the change of regime took place in Afghanistan in August, we have been in regular contact with their cricket board, our primary involvement is to support cricket in that country through the member board, we have said all along that we are waiting to see how things unfold under the different regime in that country,” said Allardice.
Melbourne based lawyer Molina Asthana is the Founder of Multicultural Women in Sport.
She told The Australia Today, “I think sport should take an active role in upholding human rights considering the international reach most sporting codes have.
“If the opportunity presented itself to a sporting code or the government to support players seeking Asylum, it should be embraced. We have seen that with the massive effort made by Craig Foster and others to evacuate the Afghan female athletes and resettle them in Australia,”
said Ms Asthana.
Earlier, Cricket Australia (CA) had said that the planned men’s Test match against Afghanistan in November would not go ahead if the country does not support women’s cricket following the Taliban takeover.
“Driving the growth of women’s cricket globally is incredibly important to Cricket Australia. Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level,” Cricket Australia said in its official statement.
“If recent media reports that women’s cricket will not be supported in Afghanistan are substantiated, Cricket Australia would have no alternative but to not host Afghanistan for the proposed Test Match due to be played in Hobart,” it added.