Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine said, the possibility of his first Test against Afghanistan The Taliban went further “not looking good” with women unwilling to play cricket and questioned why the sport’s governing body was silent on the issue.
Australia are due to face Afghanistan’s men’s team in Hobart from November 27, but Cricket Australia said on Thursday that it would not host the team if women’s cricket was not supported in the country.
Penn also highlighted the International Cricket Council’s continued silence as Afghanistan is scheduled to participate in the Twenty20 World Cup, starting October 17 in the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
“The (Hobart trial) is not looking good, no doubt we are in a world of trouble, but the logic around it is probably quite reasonable,” Paine said on SYN radio.
“Maybe there are two levels to it. The cricket aspect of it from the ICC point of view is that to be a Test playing country you have to have an international women’s team, obviously with the Taliban currently banning women from playing any sport. and it has implications at the ICC level.
“Secondly, from a woman’s point of view, from a human rights standpoint, excluding half your population from trying to do something is not going to work.
“I don’t think we want to engage with countries that are taking away things or opportunities from half their population.”
Paine said he cannot see how Afghanistan can be allowed to play in an ICC event under the current circumstances.
“At this stage we’ve heard from Cricket Australia, we’ve heard from the Australian government, we’ve heard from the Australian Cricketers’ Association,” Paine said.
“But so far we haven’t heard anything from the ICC, which I think is fascinating because there is a T20 World Cup in a month and Afghanistan are in that at the moment.
“It will be interesting to see what happens in that place. Does the team get knocked out of the World Cup?
“I think it would be impossible if teams are withdrawing from playing against them and governments are not allowing them to travel to our shores, how can such a team be allowed to play in an ICC approved schedule? Well, it’s going to be great. Difficult to see.”
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