Britain’s King Charles III met the Afghan Refugee Women’s Cricket Team at Clarence House in central London on June 24, 2026, welcoming players who fled Taliban-ruled Afghanistan and are touring the UK to keep alive a national team that their country no longer permits to exist.
The setting was royal, the story anything but ceremonial. In the garden of the King’s London residence, the players described how they escaped Afghanistan after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, when women’s sport was banned and female athletes faced threats for doing what most cricketers take for granted: training, playing, and wearing a team shirt.
“I am so glad you can pursue what you really want to do,” King Charles told them.
The team presented the king with a hand-decorated cricket bat, a small object carrying a heavy message. For the players, now living in exile, cricket has become both a sport and a public refusal to disappear. They are in Britain for exhibition matches while the women’s T20 World Cup is being played in England, but they cannot take part as Afghanistan because the Taliban does not recognize women’s sport.
The Afghan women’s national side had been revived before the Taliban takeover, with the Afghanistan Cricket Board issuing central contracts to 25 players in 2020. That promise was shattered the following year. Many players later escaped with help from Australian figures, including former cricketer and commentator Melanie Jones, team manager Emma Staples, sports lawyer Catherine Ordway, and others involved in evacuation efforts.
Their exclusion has also placed pressure on the International Cricket Council, cricket’s global governing body. Afghanistan remains a full member despite no functioning women’s national team under Taliban rule, a contradiction that has drawn criticism from players, rights advocates, and some cricket figures.
For King Charles, the meeting was a gesture of support. For the Afghan players, it was a reminder that their team, even without a flag in official competition, has not vanished from the world stage.