Australia will play Afghanistan at the ICC Champions Trophy tonight, despite boycotting other matches with the nation.

The sporting stakes for Afghanistan couldn’t be higher — win and they will make the semifinals.

But with a government run by a brutal Taliban regime practising gender apartheid, politics and sport were always going to mix.

Cricket Australia “postponed” its Test match with Afghanistan in 2021 due to concerns about Taliban’s human rights abuses against women and girls.

Subsequent series in 2023 and 2024 were not played “in response to a significant deterioration in human rights in that country”.

Australia has been drawn in the group with Afghanistan at the Champions Trophy.

“I’ve got no issues about playing,” Australian batter Marnus Labuschagne said.

“But obviously there has been some stances from us at Cricket Australia in the past.”

In a statement to the ABC, Cricket Australia said they “enter ICC events understanding there is an obligation to play all scheduled games”. 

Plight of Afghan women ‘breaks my heart’

The cricketing world is caught in a vicious cycle when it comes to balancing sport and human rights.

Shafiqa Khan, a bowler with the exiled Afghanistan women’s team, now lives as a refugee in Australia.

“If I compare my life to Afghan women they do not have anything, this feeling like breaks my heart all the time,” Khan said.

“I have the right to play cricket, to [have a] job and to study, and I have my freedom.

Having fled the Taliban in 2021, Khan and other team members now living in Australia are challenging the global cricketing community about human rights in Afghanistan — but they don’t agree with Australia’s stance.

“A boycott won’t change the situation in Afghanistan,” Khan said.

“Afghan women are like a bird in a cage.”

The women’s team is not recognised or funded by the Taliban-controlled Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), while the Afghanistan men’s side goes from strength to strength.

No official Afghan women’s cricket team under Taliban

The sport’s global governing body, the International Cricket Council (ICC), funds the ACB.

When the Taliban took back power in 2021 it appointed Naseeb Khan as the ACB’s chief executive, who is still in the post.

Afghanistan has not had an official women’s team since then, with most female cricketers fleeing for their lives let alone playing cricket.

Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tim Watts, said the ICC’s own rules require test playing nations to “support the development of the women’s game within their jurisdictions”.

Cricket Australia consulted with the Department of Foreign Affairs when considering a boycott, with the government backing the team’s decision.

“The situation in Afghanistan remains complex, therefore CA is continuing to work with the Australian government and the Afghanistan Cricket Board,” a CA spokesperson said.

Shafiq Stanikzai is a former chief executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, and was instrumental in setting up the fledgling women’s team in 2020 prior to the Taliban taking over the sport.

He said boycotting the games was the wrong decision.

“We appreciate the concern of the Australian government and Cricket Australia that they have for the fundamental rights for the women of Afghanistan,” Mr Stanikzai said.

The ICC has suspended nations in the past for rule violations, most recently Sri Lanka in 2023 for breaching “the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and ensure that there is no government interference”.

In refusing to establish a women’s team the ACB is in breach of ICC rules, but the powerful cricketing body has chosen to try and exert influence instead of banning the country.

Mr Stanikzai said suspending Afghanistan may actually play into the hands of the Taliban.

“Some of [the Taliban] would be very happy, because they don’t like cricketers at all,” he said.

“[Afghan] voices raised against Taliban policies against women’s education and women’s basic right are [from] cricketers.”

High-profile Afghanistan players Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan have spoken out against the Taliban’s policies to millions of followers on social media.

Star leg spinner Khan, who is the world’s top-ranked T20 bowler and has previously played in the Big Bash League, also opposes Australia’s boycott.

England also considered boycott

Australia is the only country to boycott playing Afghanistan outside of tournaments.

However, in the weeks leading up to the Champions Trophy, there was a campaign for England to boycott its game against Afghanistan.

A letter co-signed by 200 parliamentarians unsuccessfully urged the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to boycott its game against Afghanistan.

That campaign was led by Welsh Labour Party politician Tonia Antoniazzi, the MP for Gower and a former Wales Rugby International.

“We have women living in exile in Australia, there are eight million displaced Afghans across the world, it’s heartbreaking and we cannot be a bystander,” she said.

England’s Joe Root told the BBC ahead of the game with Afghanistan that the team had spoken to people in Afghanistan before making their decision.

“[We] don’t see that boycotting this game is going to make any sort of positive impact,” he said.

“[it’s] a job for the experts, for the higher ups and probably the ICC, to address.”

The UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the matter on the floor of parliament in January, but stopped short of supporting a boycott, instead urging the ICC to “follow its own rules”.

“What we’re seeing from the ICC isn’t good enough,” Ms Antoniazzi said.

The ICC website carries details of its anti-discrimination policy which it said is “one of the toughest in world sport”.

It also said the ICC and its members will “promote and encourage participation at all levels regardless of race, colour, religion, descent, culture, ethnic origin, nationality, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, marital status and/or maternity status … to ensure that there is no discrimination in the sport”. 

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In 2021 the ICC set up an Afghanistan working group and said it remains “committed to continuing to support Afghanistan Cricket to develop both men’s and women’s cricket moving forward”.

Afghanistan knocked England out of the Champions Trophy, winning by eight runs in their group match.

“As a team we are happy,” Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said.

“I know the whole nation will be happy.”

Afghanistan now has the opportunity to make history by beating Australia.

But its women’s team will watch from afar, with hopes they can play on the world stage in the future.

“Sport can bring people together and foster respect,” Kahn said.

The ABC approached the ICC for an interview and they declined.