Cricket South Africa (CSA) has issued a notice where they demand boycotting the cricket team of Afghanistan in the upcoming Champions Trophy.
The demand came from the sports minister of South Africa where he wanted to take a stand against the injustice shown towards the women of Afghanistan. The Champions Trophy will kick start from February 19th, where SA and AFG will meet on February 21st in Karachi as both the teams will be seen in Group B of the tournament.
Sports Minister, Gayton Mckenzie said, “I am aware that the ICC, like most international sporting mother bodies, professes not to tolerate political interference in the administration of sport, despite its obvious inconsistency with Afghanistan. It is not for me as the sports minister to make the final decision on whether South Africa should honour cricketing fixtures against Afg. If it was my decision, then it certainly would not happen.
As a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world.”
The demand came after England’s Peter Hein’s letter in which he asked the support of other countries regarding the injustice served to the national women team of Afghanistan. Peter Hein is an activist who was born in SA and was a former minister of the United Kingdom’s (UK) cabinet. Peter wrote a letter to the South Africa where he stated,
“Sport was only the first joy to be removed from women in Afghanistan, and since then the Taliban have removed their most basic human rights and freedoms on a prolific scale. Women are denied access to schools and universities, have been barred from most forms of employment and have now been denied all healthcare, as they can no longer train as nurses or be treated by male medics. They are banned from beauty salons, stadiums, gyms and parks, cannot travel alone without a male chaperone, dance, sing or drive.
Their faces are banned from view, their voices from being heard, even in prayer. Most recently, the Taliban has banned windows through which women might be glimpsed in their domestic spaces. Will CSA please raise the plight of Afghan women cricketers in the ICC and express firm solidarity with Afghan women and girls who wish to play?”
After so much chaos before the Champions Trophy, a source from ICC said that they will not ban the Afghanistan Cricket team as they have nothing to do with the policies of their government.
Earlier also the ECB (England Cricket Board) and Cricket Australia (CA) had already refused to play any bilateral series against Afghanistan.