CRICKET Ireland has decided to go ahead with hosting a five-match series with Afghanistan despite its CEO talking of her ‘moral discomfort’ and ‘abhorrence’ at how that country oppresses women and girls.
Last week the Irish Mail on Sunday detailed the human rights abuses in the Taliban-run nation, which include depriving women of basic human rights such as access to education, healthcare and employment.
The Afghan women’s team was disbanded after the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and its members fled to Australia.
In the wake of that article and the waves it made, Cricket Ireland convened an emergency board meeting on Wednesday night. In what CEO Sarah Keane described as a ‘robust’ atmosphere, the governing body opted — with some dissenters — to go ahead with the controversial series. The board comprises 14 members, of whom six are women.
‘Robust’: Cricket Ireland CEO Sarah Keane was part of an emergency board meeting
CI also says it supports the Afghan women’s team and has offered to play them here, an invite which may be possible to fulfil as early as June when they travel from their Australian safe haven to appear on the fringes of the Women’s T20 World Cup in England.
The position internationally is that neither England nor Australia will play Afghanistan unless they are drawn against them in global tournaments.
The Taliban returned to power in August 2021, and a Test scheduled for Hobart in November that year was cancelled by Cricket Australia because of their ban on women playing sport.
Since then the Afghan men have been hosted by Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, UAE and India. Ireland played five ODIs against them in Belfast in 2022 (below right).
Now Ireland will host the visitors in three one-day internationals at Stormont and two more in Bready, Co Tyrone this August.
The ODI series is important to Ireland men’s preparation for the World Cup qualifier next year and is the main element on a thin fixture list, which features just three other games at home, two T20Is and a Test against New Zealand.
Two days after the board meeting, Keane hosted a Zoom call for Irish and international cricket media to unveil the new season.
Her first contribution was to address the decision to host Afghanistan this year and play them in UAE next spring.
‘I’m not going to pawn you off by saying that there’s financial reasons and there’s legal reasons. There aren’t,’ she began. ‘This has been a decision by Cricket Ireland in what it believes is the best interest of the organisation as a whole.
Big call: Decision to go ahead with the series was taken ‘in the best interest’ of Cricket Ireland
‘There have been a lot of discussions last year about playing Afghanistan. My understanding is we didn’t for financial reasons primarily. But that meant that we still had to have that substantive discussion at board level, taking into account the views of the community, sponsors, staff, etc. around this. I don’t think I need to explain why this is a particular topic.
‘And it was a sole item for the board on Wednesday night.
‘So, the board has made the decision to play Afghanistan in Belfast. And there are a couple of main reasons around that. I want to acknowledge up front the moral discomfort that I think we all sit with around this decision and our clear abhorrence of how the regime treats women in particular.
‘But we also see it very much as an opportunity to reference the Afghan women’s team, the displaced team. We didn’t just invite the Afghan men to come here.
‘We’ve also invited the Afghan women’s team to come here. And we are in discussions around how that might happen. I think scheduling would be a problem for this year.
Vision: As well as playing the men’s side (above) Ireland have invited the Afghan women to tour
‘But it’s really important that they don’t fall off the agenda. Because if you decide not to play, if you decide not to talk about it, then they’re not on the agenda. We need the plight of the Afghan women’s team to be very much on the agenda.
‘They need to be supported. And a lot of work is being done by the ICC and others to put a fund together to try and support them. So, the challenge for us is how do we support them? What do we do as a nation? How do we display our values in relation to that?
‘So, that was a big part of the board decision, that we would ensure that that wasn’t just what we mentioned here, and then because it might be a spotlight that was forgotten about.
‘There is a commitment by Cricket Ireland to see what it can do to support the plight of the Afghan women’s team and to support them in general. So, that was a massive part of the decision. And I think it’s important to raise that up front.’
Keane, formerly with Swim Ireland and the Olympic council, went on to say that ‘the general global principle across all international sports at this point is that athletes and players will be treated differently from their government. They will be separated out from the decisions of their government.
Support: Sarah Keane says there is ‘abhorrence’ at how Afghan women are treated
‘On that basis, you will see that there’s a change within the Olympic movement in relation to Russia and Ukraine and others. And from a point of view of Cricket Ireland, we are a full member. We are very privileged to be a full member of the ICC.
‘We take it very seriously. And we believe in the honour-bound commitments of being a full member of ICC, which means we play the members of the ICC, full member nations.
‘There are a lot of things around the world that we have a lot of problems with from an Irish perspective, our culture and our beliefs and our values. But the decision is that we will play Afghanistan here and that we will play them next year elsewhere.’
