Afghanistan cricket team under fire after players meet Taliban, say ‘politics’ shouldn’t stop sport

For decades, Afghanistan has been portrayed to the world through a largely bleak narrative of daily bombings, mass deaths, political turmoil and humanitarian crises. Perhaps its only real success story has been cricket. The world’s second most popular sport has long been a national pastime in Afghanistan, giving Afghans through decades of strife a way to see their nation shine on the world stage.

Now, as a result of their harsh human rights policies, the country’s Taliban rulers seem poised to strip Afghans of even the last bastion of joy.

The Afghanistan national cricket team was formed after the US-led invasion in 2001 and quickly became serious contenders in international men’s championships. But since the Taliban retook the country in the summer of 2021, the team has faced serious setbacks.

In solidarity with Afghan women and girls who have virtually all of their basic human rights have been removed Under the Taliban, Australia’s national cricket association announced last week that it would not play Afghanistan in a pre-arranged one-day series in March.

Cricket Australia said it made the decision “in light of the recent announcement by the Taliban to restrict the freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan”, adding that it was “committed to support (sic) growing the game for women and men around the world, including in Afghanistan.”

Human Rights Watch on Monday called on the International Cricket Council to expel Afghanistan’s cricket board from its membership because of the Taliban’s regressive and anti-women policies.

Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at HRW, said the ICC “should suspend Taliban-led Afghanistan from ICC membership and participation in international cricket until women and girls can once again participate in education and sport in the country”.

In December, the Taliban banned women from working in several organizations and studying at universities, sparking global condemnation.

It’s not politics, “it’s their life”.

Afghanistan cricket fans and national team players have launched a social media campaign using the hashtag #StopPoliticsinCricket.

Rashid Khan, Afghanistan’s first global cricket superstar, condemned Cricket Australia’s withdrawal from the match and threatened to pull out of the Australian Big Bash League.

“If playing Afghanistan is so uncomfortable for Australia, I wouldn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable with my presence in the BBL,” Rashid said on Twitter.

“The fans and the people of Afghanistan, who have suffered enormously in the past 42 years of conflict, do not want politics to enter the sport,” added Hashmat Shahidi, another member of the national team, on Twitter.

But for countless Afghan women and girls, it is not politics, but a struggle to be recognized as human beings equal to their male relatives, colleagues and fellow students.

US-based Samea Shanori responded to Shahid and the “StopPoliticsinCricket” campaign with a tweet saying, “The basic human rights of girls and women in Afghanistan is not politics. It’s their lives.”

Players and board members of the national cricket team have met and posed for photographs with Taliban leaders on several occasions, including the head of the notorious Haqqani network.

Sirajuddin Haqqani is currently the acting interior minister under the Taliban regime. The FBI has offered $10 million to anyone who can provide information leading to his arrest.

The United States says his Haqqani network was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Afghans and dozens of American troops, many of them in suicide attacks, during the two-decade war in Afghanistan.

Holding meetings with such individuals has eroded the support of even Afghanistan’s most beloved cricketers.

“When the mere existence of women in Afghanistan is banned, you should be banned too. Why does your cricket matter when women can’t learn, move, work under the Taliban?” asked Zubaida Akbar, an Afghan human rights advocate. “Instead of taking photos with the Haqqanis, you could have used your voice to speak up for the rights of half the population.”