Mark Butcher has said that the stance of cricket's governing bodies towards Afghanistan represents 'a breathtaking double standard'.
The ECB has come under criticism over the last week after it emerged that it was likely to grant players NOC certificated to play in the Afghanistan Premier League T20 (APL). It was reported that players including Ollie Pope and Moeen Ali had registered for the league's draft, which has been postponed from September 27 to October 24. However, it has since been reported that the ECB are considering their position.
The board has refused to play bilateral series against Afghanistan because of the Taliban's treatment of women and girls. Over this summer, the exiled Afghanistan women's team toured England, when they played at Wormsley, attended the Women's T20 World Cup final, and met the King.
Speaking on the Wisden Cricket Weekly podcast, Mark Butcher highlighted the ICC's stance on Afghanistan's continued Full Membership of the council as the heart of a double-standard over Afghanistan's status.
"If the ICC themselves, and then potentially the ECB in granting no-objection certificates to their players going, as well as agreeing to play Afghanistan in international cricket, although not in bilateral cricket, are happy for that to happen, then it’s a difficult moral argument to turn around to your players and say: ‘Well, we’ve given you a no-objection certificate, but now we don’t really want you to go,’" said Butcher.
Speaking at an event earlier this week, ECB Chair Richard Thompson warned against restricting players from participating in overseas T20 leagues. When the board tried to crack down on issuing NOCs two years ago, they were met with significant backlash from players.
"You can't restrain somebody from working somewhere unless you've got good reason," said Thompson. On the issue of granting players NOCs to participate in the APL, Thompson said: "That's a whole other issue, and that hasn't come to us yet. But when it does, we will have to consider that very carefully."
Butcher put the onus on governing bodies to give clarity to players over Afghanistan.
"You either don’t want them to go, or you’re happy for them to go, and then it’s up to the individual players," said Butcher. "It doesn’t matter what their financial situation is, just as it doesn’t for anybody going to work in a country that has, I don’t know, dubious leadership, should we call it, to earn a living and practise their profession, which in this case is cricket.
"So, you can put it on the individual players if you want, but I would tend to put it on the game at large, or at least the governing parties, who operate at a double standard which is quite breathtaking around the whole issue."
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