Australia have threatened to boycott a planned Test match against Afghanistan later this year due to concerns over the future of women's cricket in the Asian country; it comes after Taliban representative Ahmadullah Wasiq said women's cricket was "not necessary"
Sunday 12 September 2021 11:29, UK
Australia captain Tim Paine says it is "hard to see" how Afghanistan can compete at the upcoming T20 World Cup following the Taliban's takeover over the country.
Australia have threatened to boycott a planned Test match against Afghanistan later this year due to concerns over the future of the women's game in the Asian country, while Afghan spinner Rashid Khan has stepped down as captain of the side - less than half an hour after their World Cup squad was announced.
The tournament is due to get underway on October 17 and Paine says he cannot see how Afghanistan can be allowed to play in an ICC event under the current circumstances.
"At this stage, we have heard from Cricket Australia, we've heard from the Australian government, we've heard from the Australian Cricketers Association," Paine said on Australian radio station SEN.
"But as yet, we've heard nothing from the ICC, which I think is fascinating given there is a T20 World Cup in a month's time and at the moment Afghanistan are in that.
"It will be interesting to see what happens in that space. Does the team get kicked out of the World Cup?
"I imagine it will be impossible if teams are pulling out against playing against them and governments are not letting them travel to our shores, then how a team like that can be allowed to play in an ICC-sanctioned event is going to be very, very hard to see."
Australia have threatened to boycott their first-ever Test against Afghanistan, which is due to start in Hobart on November 27, due to concerns that women will be banned from playing cricket in the country under the Taliban.
It comes after Taliban representative Ahmadullah Wasiq said on Wednesday he did not think women would be allowed to play the sport because it was "not necessary", and it would be against Islam if women players faced a situation where their face and body might be "uncovered".
"(The Hobart Test) is not looking good, we are in a world of trouble no doubt about that, but the reasoning around it is probably fair enough," Paine added.
"There are probably two levels to it. There's the cricket aspect to it from an ICC point of view that to be a Test-playing nation you have to have an international women's team, obviously with the Taliban at the moment banning women from playing any sport and that has implications at an ICC level.
"Secondly from a female, human rights point of view, excluding half of your population from trying to do something is not on.
"I don't think we want to be associated with countries that are taking things or opportunities off literally half of their population."
