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.
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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.
“Let’s get that voice out there, that those women are playing cricket. That can be a really positive message from a heartbreaking situation.”
The England captain labelled Australia as firm favourites in the Ashes series which gets underway in Sydney on 12 January. “Our job is to try and disrupt and do things differently, to break that run of success,” she said.
Knight added that England were still waiting to see whether Kate Cross would pull up well enough from her back injury to be available for selection in Sunday’s ODI. A final decision on her inclusion was due to be taken on Saturday evening.
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Australia captain Alyssa Healy – who played as a pure batter in Australia’s recent ODI series against New Zealand – confirmed that she would be keeping wicket in Sunday’s game, after successfully passing a fitness-to-keep test at North Sydney on Saturday. Healy stressed, though, that her knee would need to be monitored for the duration of the series.
“It’s going to depend on how I pull up after every opportunity,” Healy said. “We’ll play it by ear.”
Healy also called for the Australian public to show up to support her team, following the record-breaking turnout for the 2023 series in England.
“Come out and back us, and let the English know that they are in Australia,” she said. “It’d be nice for them to feel a little bit uncomfortable.”
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