Champions Trophy 2025: Pressure on ECB to Boycott Afghanistan Match Over Taliban's Treatment of Women

A diverse group of politicians from both the House of Commons and House of Lords such as Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and the former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn have called on the ECB to speak out against the heinous abuse of women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban.

However, Afghanistan is still allowed to compete as the International Cricket Council has not banned the country. The ECB chief executive Richard Gould stressed that the right thing to do would be for all the member countries to be equal in their decisions.

🚨 ECB URGED TO WITHDRAW FROM CHAMPIONS TROPHY GAME VS AFGHANISTAN 🚨

- Over 160 UK politicians want ECB to forfeit match Vs Afghanistan in 2025 CT due to Taliban's restrictions on women's rights.

- ECB condemns Taliban's restrictions, but says they cannot forfeit. (Sky News). pic.twitter.com/ERxVzojE9n

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) January 7, 2025

ECB Condemns Taliban's Treatment of Women, Sticks to Stance on Afghanistan

"The ECB strongly condemns the treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime. The ICC Constitution mandates that all member nations are committed to the growth and development of women's cricket. In line with this commitment, the ECB has maintained its position of not scheduling any bilateral cricket matches against Afghanistan," Richard Gould said.

"While there has not been a consensus on further international action within the ICC, the ECB will continue to actively advocate for such measures. A coordinated, ICC-wide approach would be significantly more impactful than unilateral actions by individual members." Richard Gould added.

Afghanistan has evolved as a powerful team in the limited overs format of the game and has been able to secure eighth position in the ODI world rankings as well. They shocked England in the 2023 ODI World Cup and even in the T20 World Cup 2022 they reached the semi-finals by defeating Australia.