Image Credit- ACB
The International Olympics Council (IOC), not the
International Criminal Court, will decide whether Afghanistan competes in the
2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. In response to a question regarding how
cricket’s governing body will address the issue of Afghanistan’s female players
being driven into exile after the Taliban took power in 2021, Geoff Allardice,
the chief executive officer of the ICC, stated this opinion.
The IOC accepted the LA28’s proposal in October to
introduce T20 cricket as a new sport. The suggestion was based on the sport’s
popularity among younger people and in Commonwealth nations, as well as its
potential for expansion into markets like the USA.
The IOC accepted the ICC’s proposal, which called for
a six-team event for the men’s and women’s competitions. The championship
format and team qualification process will be hammered out by the LA28 and ICC
by 2025.
The LA28 organisers have placed a strong emphasis on
gender equality in the Olympics, where both sexes often compete in individual
and team sports. Nevertheless, since the Taliban took control of the squad in
August 2021, 22 of the 25 contractual players have moved abroad, leaving
Afghanistan without a women’s cricket team. But, there’s still a chance that in
five years the men’s team may participate in the competition.
“(In) the Olympic competition teams are fielded
by the National Olympic Committees of those countries,” Allardice told the
BBC’s Stumped podcast. “As an international sporting federation, we
position our sport with the LA28 organisers for inclusion. And the IOC and they
(LA28) have included cricket. In terms of the position of the National Olympic
Committee of Afghanistan, it’s probably something for the IOC to be able to
address more accurately than me. But I know that they (IOC) have been following
the progress or the developments there. Our position on cricket and supporting
our member in Afghanistan is not dissimilar to those of other international
sporting organisations.”