Afghanistan women’s team take in the Women’s World Cup experience as they watched the India vs Sri Lanka game.
Afghanistan women’s players soak up World Cup experience.
For the first time, Afghanistan’s exiled women cricket players have participated in a world event, albeit merely as spectators.
As part of a 12-day program organised by the ICC with assistance from Cricket Australia (CA), the ECB, and the BCCI, 17 Afghanistan women’s players who had previously signed contracts came to Guwahati’s ACA Stadium on Tuesday to watch India play Sri Lanka in the opening match of the Women’s ODI World Cup 2025.
They have also played some matches, met with players from some of the best teams in the World Cup, and received coaching at the BCCI Centre of Excellence in Bengaluru, which is run by VVS Laxman.
“Most of the players are now based in Australia,” Mel Jones, part of the ICC’s initiative, said on commentary during the match. “They’ve got a few players in Canada and the UK as well. They’ve been put through their paces.
“They’re smiling at the moment. That might have been a few ice baths that they had to enjoy over the last couple of days as well. Fitness testing, match simulations, matches, wonderful coaching from the coaching staff at the Centre of Excellence. The ICC, the ECB, BCCI, Cricket Australia have come together to host this tour.”
The players don’t play for Afghanistan because the ACB doesn’t recognise them, but many of them are playing in Australian leagues after leaving their homeland following the Taliban takeover in 2021. Since then, women in Afghanistan have faced increased exclusion from public life, including being denied access to secondary education and universities and having their voices ignored in public. As a result, even though the ACB signed 25 players in 2020, it cannot approve a women’s squad.
The majority participated in an exhibition match between an Afghanistan XI and Cricket without Borders in Melbourne in January, although not all Australians have travelled to India because of visa issues.
The idea, which was confirmed at the ICC’s annual conference in July, is to expose the players and give them a taste of the high-profile women’s international scene by inviting them to a World Cup match. The fact that India, New Zealand, England, and Australia were present at the CoE for the World Cup warm-ups added to their experience, and Sophie Devine, the captain of New Zealand, gave them a jade necklace.
“It’s gorgeous,” Jones said. “A jade necklace, that represents courage and determination and that’s exactly what these women, these players, have shown after the last four years and going into the future as well.
“All going to plan that future mimics almost the Afghan men’s cricket team, whereby they can go through these high-performance programmes, they can create a team that can then be in qualifiers for T20 Women’s World Cups in the future.”