MUMBAI: Tasmania Premier Peter Gutwein has become the highest ranked government official to “bell the cat” as it were on the matter of Afghanistan’s position in world cricket in the wake of the takeover of the war-torn country by the hardline extremist Taliban.
Gutwein, speaking after a state budget estimates hearing on Monday, highlighted reports about the future of women’s sport in Afghanistan as being “particularly” concerning.
It is another matter of course that international cricket’s top brass appear to have taken a collective vow of silence on the matter because there is no getting away from the bald truth that while Afghanistan are required by the International Cricket Council to have a national women’s team in order to retain their full member status, the Taliban have been unequivocal in their view that women have NO place in sport (along with pretty much everything else in public life). During the last period of Taliban rule, women were not allowed to be educated and the idea of playing sport is as virtually inconceivable.
The only reason the Taliban has not commented publicly YET is keeping in mind next month’s T20 World Cup. SportzPower is on the same page as many who matter in the cricketing ecosystem that there will be no public statements made from the Afghan leadership on the status of women’s cricket (and by extension women’s sport) till the mega event is done and dusted.
Which is also in line with the ridiculous situation (in SportzPower’s reckoning anyway) wherein the Afghanistan Cricket Board is STILL going ahead with plans to host a T20 tri-series with West Indies and Australia in the UAE next month ahead of the World Cup.
Coming back to the the Afghanistan women’s cricket. They are scheduled to tour Australia in November to play a one-off Test match at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart, Tasmaina, which will also be the first to be played between the two teams.
For the Afghan women’s cricket, the takeover of their nation by the Taliban could not have come at a worse time. For it was only earlier this year that the team got official recognition and as recently as July when the team members were handed central contracts.
As for Gutwein, ESPNcricinfo quotes him as having said: “I have very real concerns as to whether or not the state should hold that match without some very clear commitments being made around it, in terms of the future of women’s sport.
“What I intend to do, in terms of that match going ahead, is reach out to the Hazara community later this week and have a chat with the local communities here to get a sense as to their view.”
Back in 1996-2001, the Taliban persecuted Hazaras, a religious minority and Afghanistan’s third-largest ethnic group.
“We’ll be seeking to engage with the Australian Cricket Board (Cricket Australia) and I want to get the feedback from our local community as well,” Gutwein further stated.
“If our local community felt that it would be sensible and perhaps confidence building to allow that match to go ahead then obviously that’s a different matter. But I think we need to get some advice,” Gutwein added.
That advice will perforce have to come from the ICC.
