The Australian government is calling on the ICC to punt Afghanistan from world cricket over its treatment of women and girls but Marnus Labuschagne played a straight bat to renewed calls for a boycott of the full member nation.
Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts told The Age that the ICC should follow Cricket Australia’s lead and expel Afghanistan from all global tournaments.
CA has refused to play any bilateral series against Afghanistan for the past four years since the Taliban regained power and reintroduced strict regulations about girls and women, including bans on sport.
Australia take on Afghanistan on Friday night in a crucial pool game at the Champions Trophy which will decide which team advances to the semi-finals.
Although Australia won’t play bilateral matches against Afghanistan because of the continuing human rights violations facing women in the country under Taliban rule, CA will fulfil ICC tournament obligations against them.
Cricket Australia has made its own decision about Australia’s participation in the ICC Champions Trophy,” Watts told The Age. “It was the first body to take a stand and refuse to play bilateral matches against Afghanistan. It should be applauded for that.
“The ICC’s own rules make it clear that Test-playing nations must support women’s cricket. The ICC should enforce its own rules against the Afghanistan cricket authorities. We will not stand by and allow the ongoing situation in Afghanistan to become a ‘new normal’.
“The Australian government has been a world leader in the global condemnation of Afghanistan’s revolting repression of women.”
Labuschagne was asked by reporters about the issue on the eve of Friday’s pivotal and much-debated group B contest at Gaddafi Stadium and the experienced batter said he has no problems about playing in the match.
He chose his words carefully, saying: “Yeah, interesting question. Obviously, it’s an ICC tournament and our game, as the schedule came out, we’re playing Afghanistan.
“Personally, I’ve got no issues about playing tomorrow. But, obviously, there has been some stances from us at Cricket Australia in the past. But we’re just focusing on tomorrow where we are playing Afghanistan.”
Marnus Labuschagne. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
It’s a huge match, from which the victors will guarantee a semi-final place, but the forecast rain and a resultant wash-out would push Australia into the last-four, very probably as second-place finishers behind South Africa, while ousting Afghanistan.
Labuschagne knows what he would prefer.
“As players, you always want to play. Obviously, if the whole match rains out, that means that we go through to the semi-finals,” he said.
“But we’d love to be able to win the game tomorrow and finish top in the pool. That’s something we want to aim to do and make sure we’ve won all our matches leading up to the semi-finals.
“But those things are out of our control, so I will have to make sure we’re ready to go tomorrow if it is a shortened fixture.
“We’ve already had a game off (after the South Africa match in Rawalpindi was also washed out) and our preparation has been altered, but we’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”
Heavy rain has been forecast for overnight with further wet weather predicted over much of Friday. On the eve of the match, the Australians had to train indoors.
If there is play, though, it will doubtless feel very much like an Afghanistan home fixture, just like their superb eight-run triumph over England at the same venue in front of their ecstatic flag-waving fans on Wednesday.
But Labuschagne trusts in Australia’s continuing ability to shut out all the noise if it’s the same scenario on Friday.
“Obviously we’d love to win tomorrow and silence the crowd, but for us it’s all about making sure we stick to our process, making sure that we’re ready to play and, whatever gets thrown at us, that we come out and perform at our best,” he said.
And that means every player coming to the party, not just experienced heads like him, Smith and Glenn Maxwell, who produced perhaps the greatest ODI innings of all, his cramp-hampered, match-winning double century to rescue Australia against the Afghans at the 2023 World Cup.
“It feels like we’re at the clinch part of the tournament and we’ve only played one game,” said Labuschagne.
“Josh Inglis played amazingly with Alex Carey through that middle period (in the win over England) and there were different parts of the game where different people stood up.
I think Matt Short played beautifully at the start and there were different partnerships that really made that game. Going into tomorrow’s game, we’ve all got to be ready to perform. It doesn’t matter if you’re young or you’re a senior player.
“Not sure who’s going to put their hand up for the big score, but we’ve all got to be ready to perform.”
with AAP
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