Months have passed after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. However, the uncertainty over the nation’s women’s cricket team still remains. In the middle of last month, we saw certain developments taking place with the International Cricket Council (ICC) forming a committee consisting of Cricket Ireland Chairman Ross McCollum, Cricket South Africa Chair Lawson Naidoo, and Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ramiz Raja to review cricket in Afghanistan and status of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and ACB posting a picture of two girls playing cricket on their Twitter handle. However, no further updates have been released yet.
For those who are unaware, to be a full member of ICC, a country needs to have both men’s and women’s teams playing and the Taliban’s takeover has faded the future of women’s cricket in the country which has eventually affected the status of men’s team as well. Though the men’s team was allowed to represent their country in the recently concluded ICC Men’s T20 World Cup where they performed quite well, the doubt still remains.
In a report by Hindustan Times, the PCB chairman Ramiz Raja who is a member of the review committee said on BB World Service’s weekly cricket show, “Pressure will be put on Afghanistan. I’m sure they will have to decide in the next six months how they deal with the ICC,”
Further adding that just like others, they are analyzing the situation and giving sufficient time to ACB to come to a decision along with providing the required funding, though keeping a watch on the usage the money used as well.
In the same interview, Raja also shared PCB’s decision to start a women’s edition of their Pakistan Super League soon.
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