The Afghan men’s cricket team is one of 12 Test match sides. The limited-overs team competed in last year’s World Cup — with prestigious victories over Pakistan and England — and on Monday in India the Test side will play New Zealand. Why? The only possible answer is that the international community cares not a damn for Afghan women.

Among the Taliban’s first acts when it roared into Kabul three years ago was banning the women’s cricket team, exiling some players and threatening to kill those who remained if they picked up a bat again. Sport was only the first joy removed from Afghan women’s lives.

The Taliban is certainly thorough. First it stopped girls attending school and university, removed women from most jobs and