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ICC's plan for exiled Afghan women's cricket team exciting but unclear, advocate says

ICC’s plan for exiled Afghan women’s cricket team exciting but unclear, advocate says By Henry Hanson By Daniela Intili Topic:Cricket 1h ago1 hours agoTue 22 Apr 2025 at 2:44am Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team fled to Australia after the Taliban takeover in 2021. (ABC News: Donal Sheil) In short: The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced […]

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3 months ago

April 22, 2025

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ICC’s plan for exiled Afghan women’s cricket team exciting but unclear, advocate says

By Henry Hanson
By Daniela Intili
Topic:Cricket

1 hours agoTue 22 Apr 2025 at 2:44am

Women in cricket gear train at Manuka oval — Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team fled to Australia after the Taliban takeover in 2021. (ABC News: Donal Sheil)

In short:

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced a task force and fund for the exiled Afghan women’s cricket team now residing in Australia.

Specifics of the initiative remain unclear, but the cricket boards of Australia, England and India will provide “meaningful support” to Afghan players.

What’s next:

Dr Catherine Ordway, a key figure in the team’s relocation to Australia, is hopeful the fund will match the sum currently given to the Afghan men’s team.

Last week, the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the creation of a monetary fund and taskforce to support the displaced Afghan women’s cricket team.

The pledge was both long awaited and somewhat out of the blue.

Since the Taliban’s takeover of the country in 2021, the team has lived in exile, mostly in Canberra and Melbourne, and up until last week’s announcement, the ICC had been conspicuously silent on the issue.

Dr Catherine Ordway, a lawyer and associate professor of sport at the University of Canberra, has been one of the key figures in the team’s relocation and continued quest for recognition.

She told ABC Sport that the decision had caught the team’s players and representatives off-guard, but that it was “absolutely thrilling” nonetheless.

“It came out of left field — we didn’t have any heads up that this was going to be the International Cricket Council’s position,” Dr Ordway said.

“We’d been, of course, calling for it for three years, to have recognition for the Afghan women around the world who aren’t able to play cricket.

“So to have this financial support and recognition … was absolutely thrilling.”

In its statement announcing the initiative, the ICC said it would partner with the cricket boards of Australia, England and India to provide “meaningful support” to Afghan women.

The displaced players will also be offered a “strong high-performance programme that includes advanced coaching, access to world-class facilities and personalised mentorship.”

An anonymous ICC source told the Sydney Morning Herald the players would not be under-resourced, and that the organisation just needed to “work out what’s needed”.

Speaking to ESPN Cricinfo, an ICC spokesperson confirmed the money would be in addition to, not taken away from, the sum already given to the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB) each year, understood to be between $17 and $27 million.

This means that Afghan women cricketers will no longer be tied to the ACB and Dr Ordway is hopeful the newly announced funding will match the figure currently taken by the ACB for the men’s team.

afghan women's team — The relocated Afghan women’s cricket team played its first match in January in Melbourne. (ABC News: Darryl Torpy)

Otherwise, however, the specifics of the initiative remain unclear.

“So of course now, the devil is in the detail, and we work through to see what [the announcement] actually means,” Dr Ordway said.

For Tooba Khan Sarwari, a member of the exiled team now residing in Australia, the announcement is “the start of something really exciting”.

“When I first heard the news, I was overwhelmed with emotions,” Sarwari told ABC Sport.

“After years of waiting, it felt like our voices were finally heard.

“It was such a meaningful decision for us.”

A four-year journey

Dr Ordway, alongside former Australia cricketer Mel Jones and Emma Staples, began to plan the evacuation of members of the team after watching the national women’s football side board one of the last flights out of Kabul before its airport closed in 2021.

Those images were well publicised as the world saw the Taliban regain control of Afghanistan and implement a fundamentalist Deobandi interpretation of Sunni Islam that heavily restricts the rights of women in sport and in wider society.

With its players largely resettled in Australia, the football team has been able to reform in the years since. But it too faces an ongoing battle for institutional recognition.

Afghanistan National Women's Team scarf — The Afghan women’s soccer team, also residing in Australia, remains in search of FIFA recognition. (ABC Sport: Damien Peck)

For Afghanistan’s female cricketers, an exit from the country took a lot longer to organise.

“We were really keen to be able to get the entire families together with the cricket team because we saw how devastating and traumatic it was for the football team to come out here without their families,” Dr Ordway said.

“So it was really important to me that we were able to get full families to safety.

“It was an enormous task that took us via road because the airport was closed, it took us nine or 10 months with a team of people.”

Upon their arrival in Australia, the Australian government granted the players emergency humanitarian visas and they were resettled in the country.

Sarwari has begun a life in Canberra, where she now plays for Eastlake Cricket Club and coaches at the Canberra Grammar School. She said cricket has proved vital to her sense of self in an unimaginably difficult time.

“Cricket was my anchor through all the chaos,”

Sarwari said.

“It gave me a sense of purpose; it allowed me to keep my identity and my dreams alive.”

Calls for equal investment

Since the Taliban takeover, there has been considerable controversy surrounding the Afghan men’s team’s continued involvement in international cricket, with ICC regulations requiring all full member nations to have a national women’s team.

Cricket Australia has twice postponed limited overs bilateral series between the two nations due to human rights concerns. However, the countries have played each other as part of ICC tournaments during that time, and Afghanistan retains its status as a Test-playing nation.

There have also been calls for a sporting boycott like the one imposed on apartheid-era South Africa, but Dr Ordway said they had never been echoed by members of the women’s team.

“The Afghan women want to see the men play,” Dr Ordway said.

“They are very proud of their team and they love seeing their flag and seeing them succeed at the highest level.”

Afghanistan bowler Rashid Khan holds a finger up as he celebrates a wicket during a Twenty20 World Cup game against Bangladesh. — Over the past decade, the Afghan men’s team has emerged as a cricketing power. (Getty Images: Darrian Traynor/ICC)

She also believes that ensuring the money for the women’s team is kept separate from the men’s is a strong strategic move by the ICC.

“The fact that they’ve decided to create a separate pot of money for displaced Afghan women is terrific because that means there’s not going to be any criticism on them that they’ve taken something away from the Afghan cricket men,” Dr Ordway explained.

And she said it was a golden opportunity for the ICC to show it valued Afghanistan’s national women’s team as much as the men’s.

“If the ICC was able to match the money they’re currently giving to the Afghan cricket board, that would be terrific,” Dr Ordway said.

For Sarwari, the most important factor is the message the decision sends to her countrywomen living on the periphery of a society that has excluded them from sport, education and the work force.

“We are not going to just play cricket,” Sarwari said.

“We are going to be voices for millions of Afghan women who have been denied their basic rights.

“We are standing with them and supporting.”

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