The ECB board has confirmed that England’s males will fulfil their fixture towards Afghanistan on the Champions Trophy this month, regardless of describing the “appalling oppression” of girls within the nation as “gender apartheid”.
“What is occurring in Afghanistan is nothing in need of gender apartheid,” Thompson stated. “At a cricketing stage, when ladies’s and women’ cricket is rising quickly all over the world it’s heartbreaking that these rising up in Afghanistan are denied this chance, however the appalling oppression of girls and women by the Taliban goes a lot additional.
“The Board recognises there are totally different views and opinions on the difficulty of boycotting the match and has listened rigorously. Now we have been in shut contact with the Authorities, the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC), our England Males’s gamers and different stakeholders to debate this matter, in addition to contemplating how finest the ECB can help these ladies cricketers who’ve fled Afghanistan.
“Following this, we stay of the view {that a} coordinated worldwide response by the cricketing group is the suitable method ahead, and can obtain greater than any unilateral motion by the ECB in boycotting this match, whereas we’ve additionally heard that for a lot of abnormal Afghans, watching their cricket group is without doubt one of the few remaining sources of enjoyment. As such, we are able to affirm that we’ll play this fixture.”
“The cricketing group can not deal with all of Afghanistan’s issues,” Thompson added. “However we urge our worldwide companions to face collectively and display via our actions that we help the ladies and women of Afghanistan, together with these cricketers now in exile who simply wish to play and must be allowed to play the game they love.”
