Afghanistan’s exiled women’s cricket team has taken its fight for official international recognition to King Charles, visiting Clarence House as part of a campaign urging the sport’s global governing body to sanction the Taliban.
The team, forced into refuge after the Taliban’s 2021 ban on women playing sport, is seeking the same status afforded to Afghanistan’s men’s team by the International Cricket Council (ICC).
Since the Taliban resumed control, the women’s team members have been living as refugees in Australia, Canada, and the UK.
While the ICC officially recognises Afghanistan’s men’s team, allowing them to compete internationally, including in the Cricket World Cup, the women’s team lacks this recognition, preventing their participation in tournaments such as the ongoing T20 World Cup across England and Wales.
During their visit on Wednesday, the team met King Charles, alongside Foreign Office minister Hamish Falconer and Richard Lindsay, the UK’s special envoy to Afghanistan. Their primary objective was to press the ICC to impose sanctions on the Taliban for their oppressive ban on women’s sport.
Wicketkeeper Ekil Latifi, 21, who fled Afghanistan in 2021 and has not seen her family since, articulated the team’s aspirations.
“We want the ICC to allow us to play under the [Afghanistan] flag and name,” she stated. “Whatever the men do, we want to do the same thing for our country. We’re not just representing ourselves and the team, but also Afghan women back in our country. We’re representing them and all the things they can’t do there. We want to show that women aren’t afraid to do anything they want to.”
All-rounder Shabnam Ahsan, 18, echoed this sentiment, adding: “It’s so sad because everyone should have the right to study and play cricket like every other country. We deserve recognition as well, we will fight for it, and we will never stop until we get it.”
The King greeted players, coaches, and affiliates in the Grand Entrance Hall at Clarence House, the engagement moved indoors due to the 34C heat.
Having heard about the arduous journeys many women undertook to leave Afghanistan, King Charles told the team he was “so glad you all managed to get to Australia”, where most now reside.
He inquired about their cricketing journeys, training routines, and families, concluding: “I’m so thrilled, I wish you great success and no injuries.”
Before a team photo, Ms Latifi lightened the mood by asking the King: “I’m learning some posh words, can you say a posh word to me?” A seemingly surprised King Charles joked in response: “What’s a posh word? I need some advanced notice.”
The team presented him with a signed shirt, which he quipped would be “too small for me,” a decorated cricket bat, and a lapel pin featuring the team’s badge, which cleverly merges the Afghan and Australian national flowers.
The team is currently being hosted by the ECB and is scheduled to play matches against Cambridge University Cricket Club on 27 June and a UK Armed Forces women’s team on an undisclosed date.
Speaking to the Press Association after the King’s departure, Clare Connor, the deputy chief executive of the ECB, highlighted the complexities.
“It’s a complex geopolitical situation,” she said. “The funding the ICC gives to Afghanistan is only for men’s cricket and under the current regime [women] cannot play sport, so this opportunity is very important because it’s a chance for them to play as a team.
“We do need to find a solution because they are resilient women who deserve the support of the cricket community. It’s about women still in Afghanistan and other displaced Afghan women around the world that these people can be a beacon for.”
Mel Jones, the former Australia cricketer and renowned commentator, who was instrumental in helping the team escape the Taliban, was also present on behalf of Pitch Our Future, the campaign she co-founded to support the exiled cricketers.
She told PA: “When we have the enormity of something like this behind them it gives them relevance and platform to say we’re here, we still love the game and want the opportunity to have the opportunity the Afghan men have had. We want to create that same fairytale.
“The other huge part of today is that they still want to be a voice for Afghan women and girls back home, and to say they’re not forgotten.”
