“We did not receive any help or even any hope,” Afghanistan women cricketers request ICC to provide funds to play in Australia
Firoza Amiri, 18 years old at that time, was hoping to represent Afghanistan on the international stage.
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Firoza Amiri (Image via Sportstar)
Afghanistan is now Taliban occupied, meaning a string restriction on the movement of women, let alone allowing women cricketers to play matches. After the Taliban took control of Afghanistan following the USA’s decision to call back the troops from the country in 2021 after 20 years, created not just complete upheaval in the country, but the situation of the girls and women was and are the worst. Firoza Amiri, 18 years old at that time, was hoping to represent Afghanistan on the international stage.
But because of the Taliban, like many other people in the country, she was also forced to leave and got settled for a while in Pakistan. But later, she was evacuated to Australia and since then, she has been living Down Under. After more than two years, she still hopes to play cricket, and along with a few others, she pleaded with the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) to make arrangements for women cricketers in Australia.
Amiri, in a recent interview, recalled the painful times when she was in Afghanistan. She revealed that despite the request and question on where the money provided by the ICC to ACB has gone, there has been no response. In that email, these girls had also requested the boards to redirect the money to an organization in Australia so that they could still represent Afghanistan on an international stage.
“We did not receive any help or even any hope from them, even though since 2017 they used the budget of men and women only for men and never supported the women’s team,” Amiri told the Associated Press.
ICC gave response to requests made by the Afghanistan women
The ICC, in an email to the Associated Press, expressed that it is incapable of interfering in ACB’s activities since it is an autonomous body. The board also stated that it cannot penalize ACB or its players for “abiding the laws set by the government of their country.”
The Afghanistan women’s national cricket team was first established in 2010 and played just one match, against Tajikistan, in Dushanbe, in July 2012. Due to the opposition of Islamists, the team was disbanded in 2014. In 2021, ACB tried to revive the team but again as mentioned, the Taliban threat did not let that happen. Most of the Afghanistan squad is in Australia currently.
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Gouri Das
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