{"id":686505,"date":"2026-05-22T03:30:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:30:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686505\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T03:30:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T03:30:18","slug":"afghan-womens-refugee-team-to-tour-england-on-return-to-international-cricket-after-taliban-exclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/686505\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan women\u2019s refugee team to tour England on return to international cricket after Taliban exclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Afghanistan\u2019s refugee women\u2019s cricket team<\/a> is set to tour England this summer, marking a significant moment for players displaced by the Taliban\u2019s return to power in 2021.<\/p>\n

The squad, many of whom resettled in Australia after fleeing the sweeping gender discrimination and ban on women\u2019s sport, will play a series of games.<\/p>\n

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The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has extended the invitation, partnering with MCC to provide high-quality training facilities for the team\u2019s preparations. The players will also be guests at the T20 World Cup final at Lord\u2019s on July 5.<\/p>\n

Clare Connor, deputy CEO at the ECB and managing director of England Women, highlighted the team\u2019s resilience.<\/p>\n

“Since being displaced from Afghanistan in 2021, these players have shown extraordinary resilience in continuing their cricket journeys, in incredibly challenging circumstances,” she said.<\/p>\n

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\"Clare<\/p>\n

Clare Connor hailed the resilience of the refugee team (Jacob King\/PA) (PA Archive)<\/p>\n

“Cricket has a responsibility to stand for inclusion and opportunity, and we are proud to be hosting this tour and supporting the players in deepening their connection to the game.”<\/p>\n

Mel Jones, the former Australian cricketer and advocate instrumental in relocating the refugee team, described the tour as “a major step forward, but also highlights how much work remains.”<\/p>\n

Jones added: “These players have shown extraordinary courage and commitment to the game, despite everything that has been taken from them. They deserve more opportunities like this; they deserve to be recognised as part of the global cricket community. Moments like this matter, but we need to see plans for sustained and meaningful action beyond this year.”<\/p>\n

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The tour takes place amidst ongoing scrutiny of the International Cricket Council (ICC), which continues to allow Afghanistan\u2019s men\u2019s team to participate in tournaments despite the absence of a representative women\u2019s team violating membership rules.<\/p>\n

ECB chief executive Richard Gould wrote to the ICC in January 2025, urging unified action against “the worst violation of women\u2019s rights anywhere on earth.”<\/p>\n

While England continues to play Afghanistan in World Cups, they are not currently scheduling any bilateral cricket with the Afghanistan Cricket Board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Afghanistan\u2019s refugee women\u2019s cricket team is set to tour England this summer, marking a significant moment for players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686506,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[20813,64,63,330737,740,3745,1208,330739,101044,330738,85,3018],"class_list":["post-686505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-afghanistan","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-clare-connor","tag-cricket","tag-ecb","tag-england","tag-england-and-wales","tag-gender-discrimination","tag-refugee-team","tag-sports","tag-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=686505"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/686505\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/686506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=686505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=686505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=686505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}