Should England play Afghanistan?

[Kenneth Viljoen]

So South Africa is first up against Afghanistan, should they play or not? I hope not but I'm sure they will, thus setting the scene for the rest of the tournament

Ironically South Africa with the apartheid ban, the Afghanistan exclusion of women to play is similiar no?

It would be unfair and a bit hypocritical to judge South Africa for playing Afghanistan when everybody played Afghanistan at the 2023 ODI World Cup and the conditions in Afghanistan were no different to what they are now, and everybody knew Afghanistan was going to be at the Champions Trophy for a good couple of years, now some politicians have decided to comment shouldn't put pressure on teams this should be addressed to the ICC.

 

[Northerner]

Of course they should play them , everyone else does, the bigger question is should the Afghans be allowed to play at all, i hate politics in sport but unfortunately it happens all the time, India Pakistan Sri Lanka Zimbabwe have all been affected in some way, the cruel regime in Kabul is about as bad as it gets,

 

[cnerd123]

Afghanistan should be stripped of full member status and everything that comes with that till they have a women's cricket team. The fact that this hasn't happened just shows how hollow the ICC is.

 

[Betterpolo]

There's no point one team boycotting Afghanistan as you've really hurt your chances to get in the semi finals (only need one loss to be eliminated)

And there's no point all teams boycotting as then Afghanistan would win the Champions Trophy.

ICC should have upheld their own rules and suspended Afghanistan when they stopped allowing women to play cricket

Based on the Word Cup it will harm our chances of reaching the semis if we do play them too

Seriously though, we knew the score when we entered so it's the wrong time now. In any case I agree this needs to de decided by all countries.

 

[Starfighter]

The ICC really are the most useless governing board in all of sport

I can think of others

 

[Burgey]

Afghanistan should be stripped of full member status and everything that comes with that till they have a women's cricket team. The fact that this hasn't happened just shows how hollow the ICC is.

 

[Arachnödouche2.0]

England should be banned for one year every five years for ****ing up the rest of the world in retrospect. Should see us through to the next millenium.

 

[Athlai]

Afghanistan should be stripped of full member status and everything that comes with that till they have a women's cricket team. The fact that this hasn't happened just shows how hollow the ICC is.

Rare Cnerd win

 

[Stefan9]

I see the south African sports minister has come out and said SA shouldn't play Afghanistan either. Says if it was up to him they wouldn't.

x.com

x.com

 

[Stefan9]

Peter Hain contacted CSA urging them to boycott the Afghanistan game:

 

[Ali TT]

I have a solution for Afghanistan cricket after the tournament, maybe it's a bit stupid ..

But since Dubai , Sharjah , Abu Dhabi etc is always touted as neutral venues for Afghanistan , and since Afghanistan cannot play home fixtures , why don't Afghanistan Cricket Board and UAE merge into one team ?

Can call it the Emirates Team..

I mean West Indies have done it.. Guyana is further from Jamaica than Afghanistan is to the UAE with completely different cultures..

This way UAE board can enjoy Test status with Afghanistan and the perks that come with , and Afghanistan women can play in a women's team that the Taliban have no jurisdiction over.

All the current players could just become Emiratis and icc give them immediate special qualification to play for the UAE side.

 

[number11]

No. Afghanistan right now is an apartheid regime. It is as bad as RSA used to be.

 

[nightprowler10]

No. Afghanistan right now is an apartheid regime. It is as bad as RSA used to be.

Agreed, all apartheid regimes should be boycotted, no matter how uncomfortable it may be to do so.

 

[Shri]

Will be interesting to see if UK has pharma companies is afghan made opium

 

[Hungry Llama]

Yes everyone should play Afghans if they want to, but the ICC is at fault at not allowing the Afghan women to play. No cricket is going on in Afghan ATM anyway, and the mens team are basically expats run by the board financed by the ICC, so why dont they finance a womens team to play in OZ where most of them have taken refuge. Smacks of double standards. The ICC shouldnt kowtow to what the Taliban wants.

Afghanistan women's cricket team: In limbo and in exile in Australia

Afghanistan's women cricketers have escaped danger, but found only a sporting limbo in exile from their homeland.

www.bbc.co.uk

Afghanistan Women's XI to play in Melbourne ahead of Ashes Test

The match will take place in the morning of the opening day between Australia and England at the MCG

www.espncricinfo.com

 

[KungFu_Kallis]

All this grandstanding of countries judging other countries is nothing but hypocritical virtue signalling. Gentle colonial Britain of all nations judging others is always the biggest joke.

 

[capt_Luffy]

"Oh yeah, we had colonies we exploited 7 decades ago, so now we can have no problems regarding radical extremists who view women as animals and are openly breaking the rules of the governing body"

 

[Blenkinsop]

Yes everyone should play Afghans if they want to, but the ICC is at fault at not allowing the Afghan women to play. No cricket is going on in Afghan ATM anyway, and the mens team are basically expats run by the board financed by the ICC, so why dont they finance a womens team to play in OZ where most of them have taken refuge. Smacks of double standards. The ICC shouldnt kowtow to what the Taliban wants.

If there's no cricket going on in Afghanistan at the moment anyway then what's the point in pretending that they can have a viable national team? Unless there are pathways for new players to come through the team will wither and die.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Yes.

Sport and politics don't mix

 

[Spark]

All this grandstanding of countries judging other countries is nothing but hypocritical virtue signalling. Gentle colonial Britain of all nations judging others is always the biggest joke.

This is such a textbook, A+ example of the deep moral poison that is "hypocrisy is the only thing that matters" - complete with a total absence of even addressing whether it might be right or wrong - that I might save it for later as an example to point to as why it's such a ****ed attitude.