Afghan women cricketers get help from new refugee fund

LONDON: Afghanistan's women cricketers will be the first beneficiaries of a new global refugee fund announced on Friday by the London-based Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC). 

Hundreds of female athletes fled Afghanistan as the Taliban took over in August 2021, escaping a hardline stance that essentially banned women's sport and education.

Most of the national women's cricket side settled as refugees in Australia, where they reunited for the first time on Thursday to play a charity match in Melbourne.

The MCC campaign's initial focus will be to raise funds for Pitch Our Future, an Australian-led programme that supports players from the former Afghan women's team, providing training facilities and educational opportunities.

The fund aims to raise an initial $1.2 million, with contributions from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), corporate sponsorships, government grants and donations from other international boards.

The MCC owns the historical Lord's cricket ground in London and is the custodian of the laws of the game.

Interim chief executive and secretary of MCC, Rob Lynch, said: "The Global Refugee Cricket Fund represents a vital step forward in our mission to use cricket as a force for good".

Deputy chief executive of the ECB and former captain of England's women team, Clare Connor, said: "The cricket community must take action to support the brave Afghan women and to give hope that cricket can be a sport for any woman or girl".

The England men's team has faced calls to boycott their Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan in Lahore on February 26.

But the game is set to go ahead even though the Taliban's move to effectively ban female participation puts the Afghanistan Cricket Board at odds with International Cricket Council (ICC) rules.

Both the ECB and Cricket Australia have said they will not play with the men's cricket team of Afghanistan in bilateral series but will face them in global tournaments, where a failure to take the field would likely see their teams docked competition points.