That was in late 2021. In the three and a half years, Amiri and her teammates have made Melbourne and Canberra their home. Amiri completed her diploma in sports and business and interned with Cricket Australia for nine months while coaching cricket part-time at the North Alphington Cricket Club. She laughs at how much her younger siblings have become Australian in the way they speak and learn and be around with friends in school.

Even as they tried to get their lives back on track, Amiri, Sapan, Hashimi and her teammates never let go of their dream — to play cricket for Afghanistan. They wrote to the International Cricket Council multiple times in the last three years with no avail. According to the ICC constitution, for a country to be a full-member nation, they have to have both men and women’s teams. However, Afghanistan remains one despite not having a women’s team, while men continue to take part in global events.

“It’s been three years. ICC didn’t see any women’s team in Afghanistan. Why still, they’re breaking their own rules and they’re sending their money back home in Afghanistan. ICC is one of the organizations that promote gender equality and they promote and celebrate equality, but I don’t know which equality they are celebrating because we as a team left everything behind and came to Australia and lost everything. That wasn’t by choice, we never had a choice to leave everything behind. Otherwise, nobody is crazy enough to be a national player and leave everything behind. There was a must that we leave Afghanistan and there was no choice. There was a political thing going on in Afghanistan that we never know what’s going to happen for players and there’s no organisation behind us.

“I think for all of the team members, boycotting the men’s team won’t make any difference. We don’t know what’s going to be beyond the boycott. We are a team, we don’t want to make any political statement anywhere. But the ICC never agreed to talk to us. We understand if they boycott the men’s team, they’re going to make a difference and build a team for women’s and equality in Afghanistan. But what I think the stakeholders and the countries and governing bodies like Australia, England, they have that power to, I think, talk to the ICC and put that pressure on ICC to recognise us as a team or as a refugee team. That’s what we want, rather than going towards men’s team and find the other ways, I think go straight to the ICC and talk through that we must recognise the women’s team, if they cannot be as Afghanistan women’s team, because we are not in our country anymore, we can make a refugee team, because we are refugees in Australia, so that’s, I think, as simple as that, if we put the pressure on ICC, that can make a difference,” explains Amiri.

As recently as February 2025, the ICC said in a statement to the BBC that it “remains engaged with the situation in Afghanistan, with the wellbeing and opportunities of players as our top priority”. ICC Chair Jay Shah was quoted saying. “We are committed to supporting cricket development through the Afghanistan Cricket Board while recognising the challenges facing Afghan women’s cricket, including the concerns of players living in exile. The ICC is also reviewing certain communications concerning Afghanistan women’s cricket and exploring how they can be supported within ICC’s legal and constitutional framework. Our focus is on constructive dialogue and viable solutions that safeguard the best interests of all Afghan cricketers.”