{"id":787774,"date":"2026-09-30T20:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787774\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T20:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T20:10:09","slug":"england-players-told-to-think-of-daughters-sisters-or-mothers-before-committing-to-afghanistan-premier-league-t20-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/787774\/","title":{"rendered":"England players told to think of ‘daughters, sisters or mothers’ before committing to Afghanistan Premier League T20 tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

English cricketers aiming to play in a men’s T20 franchise tournament organised by the Afghanistan Cricket Board have been urged to think about their “daughters, sisters or mothers”.<\/p>\n

The inaugural edition of the Afghanistan Premier League (APL) will be staged in the United Arab Emirates later this year.<\/p>\n

England players Ollie Pope and Luke Wood have both registered for the tournament draft, held in October, along with fellow Englishmen Moeen Ali, Reece Topley, James Vince, Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Laurie Evans.<\/p>\n

Their involvement comes despite the England and Wales Cricket Board’s (ECB) refusal to schedule bilateral men’s cricket against Afghanistan because of the Taliban’s treatment of women and girls.<\/a><\/p>\n

BBC Sport understands the ECB’s policy does not extend to franchise tournaments, meaning players can decide for themselves whether to participate.<\/p>\n

The ECB is likely to grant players the No Objection Certificates (NOCs) required to play, provided the tournament is sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC).<\/p>\n

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) has applied to the ICC for approval to stage the tournament and that application is currently being considered.<\/p>\n

Last year, ECB chair Richard Thompson used the term “gender apartheid”<\/a> to describe the Taliban’s systematic oppression and restriction of women’s and girls’ rights in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

When England and Afghanistan last met, at the 2025 Champions Trophy, there were calls for the fixture to be boycotted<\/a> and a cross-party letter signed by 200 MPs was sent to the ECB.<\/p>\n

Tonia Antoniazzi, the Labour MP who led those calls, has told BBC Sport that players considering the APL should think seriously about the consequences of participating.<\/p>\n

“Why are we here again? Women and girls in Afghanistan are denied the same rights as those in our country, and the women’s team lives in exile,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Does that not concern the players, especially those with daughters, sisters or mothers?<\/p>\n

“I hope the ICC refuses to sanction this event. Continuing to allow Afghanistan full-member status makes a mockery of its own membership criteria.”<\/p>\n

The five-team APL is due to start on 27 December. A number of Irish and Scottish players, including Jai Moondra and Brandon McMullen, have also registered for the APL draft.<\/p>\n

Amnesty International’s Felix Jakens told the players to give proper thought to playing in a tournament organised by a cricket board from a country which has “erased women and girls from public life”.<\/p>\n

“Since 2021, Afghan women have been banned from playing sport, and girls remain barred from education beyond the age of 11,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Any English player considering the APL, and the ECB weighing their NOCs, should ask what message that sends to those girls.<\/p>\n

“And they should use their platform and influence to demand the Taliban reverse its assault on women’s rights, not stay silent while it continues.”<\/p>\n

Afghanistan’s women cricketers have been playing as a refugee team since the Taliban took power, funded by the ICC along with the boards of England, India and Australia.<\/p>\n

In July, the ICC extended its funding for the Afghan women<\/a> until 2032 and made a stronger commitment to allowing the team to participate in qualification events in the future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"English cricketers aiming to play in a men’s T20 franchise tournament organised by the Afghanistan Cricket Board have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-787774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}