Afghanistan women's cricket team: Why a boycott wouldn't help country's players

Cricket in Afghanistan has flourished in the last 20 years

Until a few weeks ago, Tuba Sangar had a job as women's development manager at the Afghanistan Cricket Board.

"If the ICC (International Cricket Council) or other countries boycott Afghanistan cricket, it won't help women to play cricket," she says.

Sangar is still in shock at the swift exit from everything she knows, but she is clear and passionate on the subject of cricket, as she talks from her lodgings in Toronto.

Since the Taliban's rapid resurgence, questions and fears have abounded over the future of women's sport and those who play it, especially cricket.

The sport has become the national game of Afghanistan due to the extraordinary rise of the men's team over the last decade.

The evolution of the women's game has been fledging in comparison but supporting a women's team is a requirement of Afghanistan's Test status, awarded to them by the International Cricket Council in 2014, and which enables them to play five-day Test matches in addition to one-day and Twenty20 internationals.

The prospect of women being forbidden to play cricket under the Taliban has led to calls in some quarters for the ICC to revoke the country's right to play Test cricket.

Some have gone as far as suggesting Afghanistan should be suspended from the international arena altogether in the stand for gender equality.

Supporting an Afghanistan where women are forbidden to play would go against the ICC's very own anti-discrimination policy. But, somehow, it doesn't seem right for the situation to be as clear cut as that.

Progress has been exceedingly slow in the women's game, but in November 2020 Afghanistan announced contracts for 25 women players for the first time.

The majority of the cricketers are now believed to be in hiding in Afghanistan. Others involved in the set-up, like Sangar, were able to find safe passage out of the country amid fears for their safety.

The ICC are concerned, are still monitoring the situation and have made no statement as to the country's future cricketing status. A board meeting is due next month.

The Taliban are yet to pass any firm law about sport and women. In an unexpected turn, the new chair of the ACB, Azizullah Fazli, has been reported as telling SBS Radio Pashto that "we will give you our clear position on how we will allow women to play cricket. Very soon".

This more positive statement contradicts the deputy head of the Taliban's cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, who said in a media interview to the same broadcaster two days earlier that "it is not necessary" for women to play cricket.

That interview led Cricket Australia to state that if women's cricket isn't going to be supported, they would have no alternative but to refuse to host Afghanistan's men for a scheduled Test in Hobart in November.

I ask Sangar what she thinks of Cricket Australia's stance, and her response is considered, yet ultimately unequivocal.

"On the one hand it's good for the women's team - we're thankful they support us," she said.

"On the other hand, I think the Afghanistan men's team have done a lot for Afghanistan. Because of them, we know cricket. Because of our men's team, I know that women should play as well."

A girl plays cricket in Afghanistan in 2010

Would a refusal to play Afghanistan's men help the women's cause in any way though?

"Not at all," she says firmly. "A woman in Afghanistan knows about cricket because of the men's team. When Afghanistan men win a match, girls are thinking 'one day I should play for Afghanistan too'.

"If other countries, other worlds, take this from Afghanistan, I don't think it will help. It will destroy the hope of the Afghanistan people."

Sangar goes further: "The Taliban don't allow women to play cricket so the world doesn't allow men to play cricket. From both sides, Afghanistan's people will have lost the opportunity (to play)."

Sangar resigned from her post at the ACB upon leaving Afghanistan, and it's because she is no longer employed by them she feels able to speak out. The fact she is no longer in the country means she feels safe.

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She tells me that before she left she received phone calls from unknown numbers which made her feel threatened. She moved locations multiple times in Kabul as she feared being found by the Taliban.

Despite being offered anonymity for our interview, Sangar is adamant her name and her voice should be known, to show the women of Afghanistan cricket are real people. She fears otherwise the players may be forgotten.

"If no-one talks about it openly, how does the world know the Afghan women's team is in danger and needs help?

"I'm worried about their life - if I speak about them maybe it will create some problem. But I don't have any choice. I should speak about them."

She has been in touch with the players who remain in Afghanistan, but not in the regular way she used to. This is partly because she is no longer officially involved in Afghanistan cricket but partly because, she tells me, the players, whose ages range between 15 and 26, fear their phone calls are being recorded by the Taliban.

Sangar would like to hear more international women cricketers talking about the plight of the Afghanistan women's team.

She enthuses about the way players would watch the Australian Women's Big Bash, and dream of featuring in it one day.

"The other women cricketers should help us," she says. "They inspire us to play cricket, but right now when we are in danger, they are not speaking about us. That's why I am talking."

It would not be surprising to find many players outside of Afghanistan feeling ill-equipped to speak with authority about such a deep political situation - the subject deserves to be well-researched.

England captain Heather Knight alluded to Afghanistan recently however, when she remarked on the impact her team could have in that region of the world when they travel to play in neighbouring Pakistan for the first time in October, another country that follows Sharia law.

Australia wicketkeeper Alyssa Healy was asked specifically about the Afghanistan situation on Australian radio network SEN. She expressed sadness and sympathy and hoped authorities might be successful in securing the players passage out of the country.

"Hopefully at the very least we might be able to get these wonderful women out," said Healy. "Even to another country that they might get an opportunity to even just play cricket, whether it be domestically or if they get to represent Afghanistan again that would be great. But just to see them playing cricket would be such a great thing, wherever that may be."

This is indeed the biggest wish Sangar has.

"There is no hope in such a situation that they can play cricket in Afghanistan," she sighs.

"But I hope they can succeed to leave Afghanistan and play cricket from a third country. We should find a way. They should play for Afghanistan.

"Cricket is not a game of bat and ball, it's a game of emotions for Afghanistan. When people watch a match they are crying with winning and losing. I think playing cricket for Afghanistan will give hope for other women in Afghanistan. Right now there is no hope for those who are involved in cricket and in sport."

Sangar was appointed to her most recent role with the ACB in 2014. Her strongest support came from chairman Farhan Yusefzai who was appointed in 2019 and told her that "every girl should get involved in cricket".

Indeed, in the ACB's annual report for 2020, Yusefzai writes: "One of the highlights of our achievements in 2020 was the series of steps taken to form a national women's team. Women's cricket had always been neglected previously and, therefore, I believe it was the need of the hour."

Yusefzai has now been replaced.

In the preceding five years though, cricket tournaments had been arranged in schools in Kabul and Herat provinces involving 1,000 girls, according to the ACB's report.

From a group of 100 school players, 60 were chosen in 2020 to attend a 48-day skills camp held across various venues, aimed at finding and training a potential national team.

From these camps, 40 girls were selected to attend a further 20-day camp at the National Cricket Academy and eventually 25 were chosen to be the first contracted women players. All this during the pandemic.

Sangar explains the contracted players trained during the week, and at the weekend played matches among themselves.

The Board was planning to send them on a camp outside of the country to aid their development. A number of staff appointments were made too, including a cricket director.

"Before that we were just two or three staff in the women's department, but in 2021 we had seven or more in women's cricket," Sangar says proudly.

"We had a project with Unicef named Sport for Development and in every school we had two teams. So there were like 20 teams in Kabul and 20 teams in Herat."

Unicef partnered with the ICC for the 2019 men's World Cup in the UK, raising £138,000 to go to a girls cricket project in Afghanistan.

Despite the progress, women's cricket always faced cultural challenges. In 2020 the ACB stressed that in advancing the development of women's cricket it must be done 'with respect to all national and traditional values'.

"People just love cricket," says Sangar. "And they are supportive for men's cricket but most people were against women's cricket.

"People think a woman is not physically fit for playing cricket. The way they wear the clothes of cricket - people think it isn't good for women. But our girls, these talented girls showed them they can play cricket."

ACB photographs show the women playing wearing a hijab, with long-sleeved cricket strip including full-length trousers.

"All the time people told us 'you're not able to play cricket. Go study and cook, you're not good to play cricket.' But all the time I told them, 'we're not playing against men, we're playing against women'.

"The main problem was the culture and mindset of people, and they had doubt on our ability."

"But," she smiles, "We had hope that one day we could play for Afghanistan."

The smile subsides.

"But right now, there is no hope."

Sangar wants to know the women cricketers of Afghanistan are safe. Her own immediate future carries its own uncertainties - she had a scholarship lined up to study a Masters in mass communication in India and aspired to work as a communications or event manager in Afghanistan's domestic T20 Shpageeza League one day.

Returning to the question of what now for the cricketers back in Afghanistan, she reiterates her desire to see the players flown out of the country.

"The thing that will help the Afghan women's team, is to take the girls out of Afghanistan, bring them to a secure place, then other countries should help these girls play for Afghanistan from a third country, like Australia, like UK, like India."

If the players had the chance and wanted to leave though, how many years would it be sustainable to maintain an Afghanistan representative team outside of the country? Where would the future players come from? At this point there is a flicker of optimism from Sangar, although it seems fanciful in the present-day situation.

"I'm sure it won't be more than one or two years," she says. "Because right now Afghanistan people, especially youths, are not like 25 years ago. They know their rights, and they're not accepting whatever people tell them."

Whether Sangar believes her own assertion or not, it is a vague hope to cling to, in the face of little other.

"I hope other countries and ICC allow men or women to play cricket and take the right decision for Afghanistan cricket future, not just for their own self," she concludes.

Cricket authorities should ask themselves who would ultimately be best served by the decisions they may or may not take on Afghanistan. Better still, ask the women cricketers of Afghanistan, what they want.