Cricket Australia chief says he’s ‘proud’ of the choice to cancel bilateral collection towards Afghanistan after outgoing ICC chair questions Australia’s ‘ideas’.
Australia’s prime cricket official has defended his nation’s determination to play towards Afghanistan on the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) World Cups whereas cancelling all bilateral collection towards the South Asian facet as a result of Taliban’s crackdown on ladies’s sport.
Cricket Australia (CA) chairman Mike Baird mentioned on Thursday he was “very pleased with the place we’ve taken” after the departing boss of the ICC accused them of hypocrisy.
“We’ve taken a place, and we’re proudly standing up the place we predict we must always,” Baird mentioned.
“There’s all sorts of strains you may draw. We’ve drawn a line.”
Former ICC chairman Greg Barclay mentioned Australia ought to have walked away from World Cup video games towards Afghanistan in the event that they wished to take a stand towards the Taliban’s clampdown on ladies’s rights.
“If you wish to make a political assertion, don’t play them in a World Cup,” Barclay informed the UK’s Every day Telegraph newspaper.
“Positive, it may cost a little you a semifinal place, however ideas are ideas. It’s not about having half a precept,” he added.
Australia have in recent times refused to play bilateral collection towards Afghanistan, citing discomfort on the ongoing Taliban’s insurance policies on ladies’s participation in sport.
However they proceed to face Afghanistan in main tournaments and have performed them at each the ICC’s one-day worldwide World Cup in November 2023 in India and the ICC T20 World Cup in the USA and the Caribbean in June.
CA indefinitely postponed a bilateral males’s T20 collection towards Afghanistan in March citing “deteriorating human rights for girls and ladies within the nation underneath Taliban rule”.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board, in reply, urged CA to “respect and perceive its place and search for different options moderately than succumbing to exterior pressures and/or political influences”.
It was the third time since 2021 that Australia refused to play Afghanistan outdoors of worldwide tournaments.
Australia had beforehand cancelled a one-off Check match and an ODI collection for a similar motive, however had then mentioned it saved “the door ajar for future bilateral collection on the proviso of improved circumstances for girls and ladies within the nation”.
Earlier than the return of the Taliban, Afghanistan’s cricket board was slowly making progress in rising the sport amongst ladies, contracting a small variety of semi-professional gamers in 2020.
A lot of these gamers finally fled to Australia when the Taliban took over in 2021.
The groups’ final assembly got here on the ICC Males’s T20 World Cup on June 22 and led to a historic triumph for Afghanistan as they beat the then-defending champions by 21 runs within the Tremendous Eight conflict.
The end result prompted wild celebrations, each within the Afghanistan camp on the floor and amongst followers again dwelling.
“We now have waited for this second for a very long time – finally, we beat Australia,” Gulbadin Naib, Afghanistan’s hero with the ball within the match, exclaimed after the win.
Afghanistan had come near beating Australia on the 50-over World Cup in India on November 7, just for Glenn Maxwell to drag off a shocking heist with a double century and deny the boys in blue.
Australia went on to win the World Cup by beating India within the remaining on November 19.
The groups may come face-to-face in two months on the ICC Champions Trophy 2025, attributable to be hosted in Pakistan in February and March.
