Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird said the body stands by its approach to the delicate situation surrounding Afghanistan cricket amid criticism from the outgoing ICC boss about how principled Australia’s stance really is.
Australia has refused to play Afghanistan in a bilateral series since the Taliban government banned women from playing sport, but it does compete against the nation in ICC World Cups.
This, ICC chief executive Greg Barclay told The Telegraph in London, is a form of “virtue signalling”.
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“If you want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup,” Barclay said.
“Sure, it might cost you a semi-final place, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle.”
While Australia received some criticism last year for agreeing to play Afghanistan in the 2023 ODI World Cup in a match where Glenn Maxwell set a world record with a remarkable double century, Baird said it was the first he had heard of the concerns.
On the morning of the historic Ashes Test between Australia and England at the MCG in late January, a team of female Afghanistan cricketers who fled the nation with the return of the Taliban government will play a Cricket without Borders XI in Melbourne.
Baird pointed to that T20 exhibition as an example of its support for Afghanistan women and noted Cricket Australia is a key driver in the growth of female cricket as a reason for its stand in relation to bilateral series against the Taliban-controlled nation.
“I saw those comments this morning and I hadn’t heard those views before in any kind of forum. Obviously he’s entitled to his view, and he’s going on to new things, and … we wish him well on that,” the CA chairman said.
“But we’re very proud of the position we’ve taken and we’re supporting the Afghan women’s cricket team and those members who are still here and we’ll be doing that in the summer, and we look forward to that.
“There’s all types of lines you can draw. We’ve drawn a line. We’ve taken a position and we’re proudly standing up where we think we should.
“And I think that event that’s going to come at the end of January is a celebration of women, and what we’re seeing in the women’s game — and cricket has led that here in this country — has been incredible, so we remain proud.”
In a recent episode of Fox Cricket’s podcast The Follow On, former Australian Test cricketer Mel Jones stressed the importance of providing the Afghanistan women with opportunities to play a sport they are prevented from competing in at home.
LISTEN TO THE FOLLOW-ON PODCAST HERE
“They get to train as an elite group, which is what they were doing before the takeover, (and) they get to feel united again, and we all know how important connection is to everything these days,” the Fox Cricket analyst told The Follow On.
“They are playing a wonderful organisation in Cricket without Borders, who are a fantastic group themselves doing great stuff.
“So to be on the first day of the Ashes Test — we are celebrating 90 years of Test cricket, albeit there has not been a lot of Test cricket through that period — but Australia is in a very fortunate position of celebrating that and we are celebrating 10 years of the WBBL domestic format and (those are) things we can hang our hat on with pride.
“But I think this is another way we can show that this is not just about Australian cricket, it is about the bigger picture and about how we can be global citizens and part of the solution.
“Yes, it has been a long build and a lot of that has been for the protection and security of the women and making sure they got to a place where they were comfortable as well … and sometimes things need to take a little fraction of time to make sure we get things right.”
Barclay defended the ICC’s decision to allow Afghanistan’s men to continue competing in men’s cricket despite its ban on women from competing in sport.
“It is not the Afghanistan board’s fault. They used to have women’s cricket. I think our approach has been right. It would be easy to kick Afghanistan out, but their board haven’t done anything wrong,” Barclay said.
“They’re just working under a decree and a series of laws that says this is what you have to do. I don’t think it would make a jot of difference to the ruling party there to kick them out.”
