MELBOURNE – The Afghanistan Women’s Cricket Team would be back in action after three years at Junction Oval in Melbourne on Thursday.
The Afghan women’s team would play a friendly T20 match against the Cricket without Borders XI.
This match will take place before the opening day of the Women’s Ashes Test between Australia and England at the MCG.
This is the first time the Afghan women’s team has gathered as a group after leaving the country following the Taliban’s takeover. Half of the team members are based in Canberra while the rest are settled in Melbourne as refugees.
The exhibition match not only highlights the importance of women’s cricket but also emphasizes the struggle for women’s rights and equal opportunities for Afghan women.
Before the match in Melbourne, Naheed Spen and Feroza Amiri spoke to the media, saying, “This is truly important for us, especially for Afghan women, as it is a historic moment for all Afghan women.”
They said, “We have high hopes for this match, because it can open doors for the Afghan women in education, sports and the future. We don’t want this to be our first and last match; we want more matches,”.
They further said, “We are going to represent millions of Afghan women who are in Afghanistan and are deprived of their rights, and it’s very special for all of us to have come together again after three years,”.
Australia currently does not play bilateral matches against Afghanistan but only faces it in the ICC events. Both the teams would be in the same group for the Champions Trophy next month, to be held in Pakistan and the UAE.
Cricket Australia’s Chief Executive Nick Hockley described Thursday’s exhibition match as the first step toward the Afghanistan women’s team playing international cricket and a ray of hope.
