The Afghanistan Refugee Women’s Team travelled to England last month, for a tour which saw them play at some of the most historic cricket grounds in the country.
They played an MCC Foundation XI at Wormsley, winning in a tense chase, before playing at Fenner’s Cricket Ground in Cambridge. They also received high performance training at Lord’s, and met King Charles. Last weekend, they attended the Women’s T20 World Cup final, posing for photos alongside the victorious Australia players after the game.
The tour comes at a poignant time, with an ICC general meeting set to take place in Edinburgh this week, at which the future of the side will be discussed.
Who are the Afghanistan Refugee Women’s XI?
The Afghanistan Cricket Board had awarded 25 female players with central contracts for the first time in 2020, to fulfill their criteria for Full Member status of the ICC by supporting a women’s national side. In 2021, when the Taliban swept back into power in Afghanistan, those players fled in fear of the new government’s brutal crackdown on women’s rights. The majority of those players settled in Australia, with small contingents also in Canada and the UK.
Since then, the players have been campaigning and lobbying the ICC for both funding and the right to play under the Afghanistan flag. In late 2022, they wrote to the ICC to request that the funding which goes to the ACB as a Full Member board intended for the development of a women’s side, be transferred to them. The ICC replied that it was up to the ACB to decide how to spend the funds they received from the governing body.
In 2024 the players wrote a second letter, asking to set up a refugee team in Australia. A year later, they said they had not received a response. However, the ICC did announce a funding package for the “advanced coaching, access to world-class facilities, and personalised mentorship” of the side, in collaboration with the ECB, BCCI and CA. Last year, they toured India during the women’s 50-over World Cup, and received high-performance coaching from players in the tournament.
The ICC funding, however, ends this August. As of yet, there is no clarity on what funding looks like for the side beyond that point.
What could the future look like for the Afghanistan Refugee Women’s team?
There are three key issues which need to be ironed out before any definitive path can be drawn for what the playing future of the group looks like. Who will fund their cricket? Where will they play? And what name will they play under?
Taking the latter first, a development from FIFA earlier this year gave the players renewed hope of playing under the Afghanistan name and flag again. The football governing body gave the Afghanistan women’s football team in exile permission to represent Afghanistan without requiring approval of the Taliban-controlled national governing body. That move has given hope to the players that the ICC could follow their lead and make a similar decision. There has, however, been no official comment from the ICC or indication that they will take a similar step.
The fundamental issue remains that the ICC cannot recognise Afghanistan women without jeopardising their relationship with the ACB as well as acknowledging the hypocrisy of Afghanistan’s full member status. The criteria for ICC Full Membership includes boards having “a sustained and sufficient pool of players to support strong and consistent national level selection across the senior men’s, U19 men’s and women’s teams.”
At the same time, while the Afghanistan men’s football team have never qualified for a FIFA World Cup, Afghanistan men have been one of cricket’s success stories since they gained Full Membership, reaching the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup. While FIFA bears little consequences for recognising the Afghanistan women’s football team, alienating the ACB could have direct consequences for the future Afghanistan men in global events.
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The issue of funding and who takes organisational responsibility for the side is likely the most prominent discussion point concerning the team at the ICC meeting. With the funding package from the international governing body set to stop next month, there is no certainty over who will fund the team in the future. The squad has been in receipt of funding from the MCC Foundation’s Global Refugee Cricket Fund, as well as from the ECB and CA. However, there is hope that a more formalized funding structure can be established beyond charitable donations and sporadic cash from governing bodies.
Perhaps the most complex issue is where the side will play. The tours the side have been on so far have seen them face local opposition, and many of the players compete in club cricket in Australia. Several ideas to facilitate the playing future of the team have been floated as possibilities, including competing in the East Asia-Pacific region, although that would likely require formal recognition as Afghanistan women by the ICC. The formation of a structure to allow refugees from different parts of the world to compete in tournaments and series has also been floated.
In short, over the last two years the Afghanistan Women’s Refugee team have been funded sporadically, on a temporary basis, and without formal structure or recognition from the ICC. While there is not expected to be any sweeping resolutions at this week’s ICC meeting, the increasing visibility and determined campaigning from the players means this is an issue which is not going to go away.
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