Cricket Australia threatens to cancel one-off Test against Afghanistan after Taliban’s ‘no sports for women’ statement

Cricket Australia (CA) on Thursday made its stance clear on the one-off Test against Afghanistan set to be played in Hobart, Tasmania in November. After the Taliban allegedly said that they won’t allow the women of the country to indulge in sports, CA have come hard and suggested they would have to cancel the one-off Test between the two countries.

In the past few years, CA, as one of the top boards in world cricket, have been quite actively working to improve women’s cricket and have been advocating for change across the globe. However, when Taliban's cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq was quoted saying that it wasn’t necessary for women to play any sports and for that matter cricket as well, CA decided to release a statement.

"Driving the growth of women's cricket globally is incredibly important to Cricket Australia. Our vision for cricket is that it is a sport for all and we support the game unequivocally for women at every level. If recent media reports that women's cricket will not be supported in Afghanistan are substantiated, Cricket Australia would have no alternative but to not host Afghanistan for the proposed Test Match due to be played in Hobart," CA said in their official release.

The one-off Test was supposed to be a special event for Afghanistan, who have just played six Tests so far and against five countries only. The match is scheduled in late November but the recent developments are hinting towards abandonment of the historic Test. The event was supposed to be held last year but was pushed until 2021 due to the pandemic.