While expressing his support for Afghanistan's women's cricket rights, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi reaffirmed that "we cannot control" the issue. Speaking ahead of Afghanistan's training session before they meet England in Lahore in the Champions Trophy on Wednesday, Shahidi said the focus for his team remained on what transpired "inside the pitch".
"Everyone likes to see everyone play. When it comes to politics and those things which we cannot control, we are only cricket players we can control things in the ground," Shahidi said
The role that Afghanistan is playing has brought the issue into closer focus. More than 160 UK politicians demanded in the weeks preceding this match that the ECB boycott the match against Afghanistan in protest of the Taliban government's prohibition on women playing cricket in the nation. The ICC was urged to "implement their own rules" by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, but the ECB finally turned down requests to boycott the match.
However, Shahidi reaffirmed that he and the men's squad were still focused on their next match. "We are sportspersons. We control what we can do inside the ground and we can't worry about what's happening out of the ground. We play hard, we work hard, we have good net sessions. So that's what we're thinking of."
Shahidi's rather circumspect statement of support is consistent with other well-known Afghan cricket players who have spoken for women's rights in their country. Late last year, when women were prohibited from training to become doctors, Rashid Khan and Muhammad Nabi were the most vocal players.
Jonathan Trott on the matter
Jonathan Trott, the head coach of Afghanistan, told the BBC earlier on Tuesday that the men's cricket team was aware that what was taking place was "not correct".
"These guys are brave. They know the difference between right and wrong. It is a real tricky situation for them. They know who they are playing for and representing. We work hard to bring joy to the country and the guys are passionate, brave and proud of being able to do that, but knowing full well that there are things that are not correct," he said.
The match between Afghanistan and England is almost a knockout match; a loss would put either team in danger of being eliminated early. Australia overcame England in their inaugural match, while South Africa defeated Afghanistan. Although Shahidi conceded that Afghanistan's most straightforward path to victory was not to chase totals, he also implied that the Karachi surface did not support spin bowling in any way.
"I think when we bat first, that gives us more of a chance. But at the same time, we beat teams in the last World Cup also, batting second. But in the South Africa game, I think that the wicket was little bit more supportive for fast bowling and when our spinners were bowling, there was no support for them. I didn't even see one ball turning. So yeah, we didn't play well, especially in batting we didn't start well. At the same time, it's not an excuse but the world knows that we have good spinners. I didn't see any support there, but hopefully we have some support in tomorrow's game for our spinners," he said.
Afghanistan defeated England by 69 runs in their most recent One-Day International (ODI) match at the 2023 World Cup, with their spinners taking eight wickets between them.