What Can Be Done About Afghanistan?

The Afghanistan men’s team is one of the most exciting in modern cricket, particularly in the shorter formats of recent years. An exhilarating bowling attack dragged them into their first ever World Cup semi final last month despite a lack of high quality batters, and only what may go down as the greatest ODI innings of all time prevented them causing one the most remarkable upsets in 50-over World Cup history last year, but there remain a number of moral questions surrounding their ICC membership.

Before I begin, I want to be clear that I’m going to try to keep this as focused on the cricket side of this issue as possible without intending to belittle the severity of the the sporting context, as I’m far from an expert on the socio-political situation in Afghanistan. However, given the nature of the topic in question, the basic facts of the matter, specifically the horrendous treatment of women under the Taliban regime, will undoubtedly come into question. 

From a purely cricketing perspective, I have absolutely delighted in witnessing the rise of Afghanistan. In particular, I would love to see them play more test cricket as they have some incredibly talented players - I see no reason that Rashid Khan couldn’t be one of the great modern test bowlers given the opportunity, but I seriously struggle to reconcile this with the wider issues surrounding the political situation in the country. The shocking inaction on the ICC’s part in relation to this matter seems to have drawn a worrying lack of scrutiny as the issues have been swept under the rug somewhat, but even beyond the obvious issues of morality Afghanistan’s political situation raises, there are also questions of simple sporting fairness to contend with.

After the Taliban took power, the Afghanistan women’s team was forced to flee to Australia, and has ceased to exist as an international side. Despite a women’s team being a compulsory requirement for full ICC membership, Afghanistan have seen no suspension of their full member status, nor has their funding been reduced. Ireland on the other hand, who gained test status alongside Afghanistan, receives the same amount of funding from the ICC, but has to spread this across both men’s and women’s teams, whilst Afghanistan is being allowed to focus its full financial capacity solely on the men’s side without consequence.

Australia have notably refused to play Afghanistan in bilateral internationals sanctioned under the Future Tours Programme. The fact that this boycott doesn’t carry over into ICC tournaments is somewhat hypocritical in my opinion, but should making such a decision even have to fall on individual teams? Despite the cultural importance the Afghanistan men’s cricket team have in their nation of late, it seems doubtful, if not impossible, that the ICC revoking their full member status would have any impact on the policies of a Taliban-led government, but the refusal to take any action whatsoever lands Afghanistan’s potential opponents in a moral dilemma nonetheless.

It is yet another example of poor governance on the ICC’s part - a story as old as time, and a list even longer. Peculiarly, the ICC had no qualms in suspending Sri Lanka over government interference, albeit at SLC’s own request. If the total disbandment and forced exile of the Afghanistan women’s team as a direct result of the Taliban’s ascension to power (and the bans they placed on women participating in an extensive list of basic activities) doesn’t constitute government interference in the operation of Afghanistan’s cricket programme, it’s hard to imagine what would force the ICC into action without a direct request from the board in question, such as in Sri Lanka’s case.

The absolute minimum sanctions placed on Afghanistan Cricket for the actions of their government should be 50% reduction in funding, since there isn’t even a women’s team to fund anymore while ever other nation in world cricket has to spread their ICC funding twice as far. And that’s assuming the ICC continue to ignore the fact that operating a women’s team is a compulsory requirement for full membership. 

The bigger issue, however, is the women's team itself. As long as the Taliban remain in power, it seems highly unlikely that we'll see a Afghanistan field a women's side, at least not one sanctioned by the ACB at risk of facing severe consequences, but are there other solutions? If the ICC were to do as I mentioned previously, and cut the funding they provide to the ACB as a result of their lack of a women's team, the additional funding should then be directed to those cricketers who have fled their country. With some additional support from administrators in, most likely, Australia, this may allow them to participate as a technically-stateless side who honorarily represent Afghanistan. However, given the lack of financial transparency across the board in cricket administration, it takes some real imagination to picture the ICC reaching such an fair outcome.

There have, in fact, been calls from the very women exiled from Afghanistan as a result of the Taliban's takeover, for the ICC to establish a refugee team, allowing all those forced to flee Afghanistan to continue operating under a united banner, even if that isn't representative of their nation, rather than simply having to become cricketing nomads seeking franchise gigs as and when they can in order to make a living. This should, without a doubt, be where the ICC redirects the funds Afghanistan is currently receiving to operate a non-existent women's team, but it would surely require some significant calls for such an outcome from the major cricketing nations.

Australia have provided support, but are unlikely to offer financial aid from their own pockets, somewhat understandably. The ECB have remained largely silent on the matter, as have the BCCI despite often providing support to the Afghanistan men's team when required, so the next step surely has to be pushing these big three cricket boards into significant action to resolve what is surely cricket's biggest discrimination-based problem since South Africa's post-apartheid readmission.