Female cricketers from Afghanistan are to become the first recipients of support from a Global Refugee Cricket Fund.

The fund, established by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and its charitable foundation, will raise money for Pitch Our Future, a programme supporting exiled Afghan women’s cricketers in Australia.

More than 20 members of the former Afghanistan women’s national team have been in Australia since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, because female participation in sport in the country has effectively been outlawed.

On Thursday an Afghanistan Women’s XI played an exhibition match in Melbourne, their first match as a collective since fleeing to Australia.

The England and Wales Cricket Board has made an initial donation of £100,000 to the Global Refugee Fund.

The fund is looking to provide refugees with access to facilities, offer education, promote advocacy and build both high-performance and community programmes.

In 2020, 25 players were given professional contracts by the Afghanistan Cricket Board but after the Taliban returned and they could no longer play or train safely, they had asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) for permission to play as a refugee team. The request was denied.

The ICC has now been invited to take part in a steering group that will ensure what the MCC is calling a “sustained and structured approach”.