After more than three years of living in exile, the Afghanistan women’s cricket team will get the chance to represent their country for the first time since the Taliban took over in 2021.

The exiled cricketers will feature in a historic exhibition match against Cricket Without Borders (CWOB) at Junction Oval in Melbourne on Thursday January 30, hours before the Women’s Ashes day-night Test match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.

Since the Taliban regained power in 2021, women’s rights have rapidly deteriorated and they continue to face unprecedented devastation, including being unable to play sports, go to universities, or – more frighteningly – not being allowed to speak too loudly from within their own homes.

“This match has so much more importance than ever,” says Chelsea Moscript, a cricketer for Australian Capital Territory who is coaching the Afghan women ahead of their fixture.

“These girls have gone through so much already in their lives from fleeing Afghanistan and becoming refugees in Australia and despite it all, they’ve continued to play cricket.

“For them to get an opportunity to go out there and play together as a team is something I know they’re also excited about and who knows when that next chance may be?

“They’re making history and it’s a really exciting time for them.”

It is fitting too that CWOB, founded by Clare Cannon in 2011, were asked by Cricket Australia to play the Afghanistan team given their philosophy being rooted in ‘being bold, showing sportsmanship, having fun and making friends’.

“Empowering young women has always been what CWOB is about, so playing the Afghan women is a perfect fit, and a great honour for us,” Cannon said.

“We hope this first step is the beginning of a long journey for the Afghan Women’s XI.”

Coaching the CWOB team is Stephen Field, who also emphasised the importance of the organisation and the upcoming exhibition match.

“We all have the responsibility to carry this game forward and that’s what this match is about,” Field said.

In November 2021, former ICC chair Greg Barclay said the board was “committed” to supporting Afghanistan “to develop both men’s and women’s cricket”.

In July last year, the Afghanistan women’s team wrote a letter to Barclay to help them form a refugee team based in Australia but despite their impassioned plea, the team did not hear back from the cricket chiefs.

There also remains an inherent sense of injustice with the men’s team still being allowed to compete despite a clear violation of the International Cricket Council (ICC) rules, which states having a national women’s team is one of the main requirements for becoming a full member.

The Afghanistan men’s team have also retained their Test status and made considerable progress in recent times, beating Australia during the T20 World Cup last summer to reach their first-ever semi-final.

The year before, they also won four out of nine matches at the 50-over World Cup in India, including notable victories against England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

More recently, England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief Richard Gould wrote to his ICC counterpart urging them to take action against the Afghanistan Cricket Board over the Taliban government’s treatment of women.

A group of more than 160 politicians, including Nigel Farage, Jeremy Corbyn, and Lord Kinnock, signed a letter encouraging England to boycott next month’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan.

Despite being pushed to the periphery, the Afghanistan women have remained determined to represent their country.

After more than three years, those dreams are about to become a reality.

Jones: Cricket community has rallied round

Former Australia batter and Sky Sports pundit Mel Jones has also played a central role in helping relocate many of those who will be playing in Melbourne on Thursday.

Jones first got involved while watching the fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021 unfold on television from her Covid-enforced quarantine hotel room after returning from working in England.

“It started when I got a message from Sharda Ugra, an Indian journalist,” Jones told the Sky Sports Cricket Podcast.

“She had a connection with Benafsha Hashimi, one of the Afghanistan women’s players.

“She basically said, ‘do you know any of them? Could you just reach out and touch base and let them know that people are thinking of them?’

“She also added, ‘potentially could you look at assisting them in getting out?’ She knew of a group of women in Australia who’d got the Afghan women’s football team out before the borders had closed. So they’d rallied really, really quickly with stronger connections and I said, ‘oh, look, I can give her a buzz’.

“I sent her a voice message asking how she was and that I couldn’t promise her anything, but I could look into it and Benafsha came back to me almost immediately.

“She said: ‘yes please, I and all the players desperately want to get out for fear of death’.

“At that stage, the Taliban were going door to door and they were burning their cricket gear and anything that sort of said they were cricketers.

“That’s what every female sports person was doing at the time.”

From that voice message exchange, Jones went on to find herself part of a team who worked round the clock to secure humanitarian Visas with the Australian government for 17 centrally-contracted women’s cricketers and their immediate families.

“We got over 130 out in the end, which the Australian government’s still sort of shaking their heads at going, ‘I’m not too sure how you managed that’,” Jones added.

“They’re exceptionally appreciative of the way in which the cricket community here in Australia, mostly local club teams, have just rallied around them and given them what they need in terms of just a little bit of love and hugs to equipment and an opportunity to play.

“The majority of them are in educational settings at the moment, so their English has improved out of sight. That is super helpful for us just to be able to communicate with them.

“But at the same time, health issues, mental health, physical health, spiritual health has been battered and bruised and still is.

“I think it will be an ongoing process to try and support them with that.”