Pressure is mounting on the ICC to act amid the announcement of fundraising efforts to support Afghanistan’s exiled women’s cricketers, who played their first match together this week.
The Pitch Our Future campaign, led by former Australia cricketer turned commentator Mel Jones, launched on Friday aimed at attracting online donations to support the players’ sporting, physical and mental needs so that they can continue to compete regularly as a team.
Meanwhile, the MCC and MCC Foundation have set up the Global Refugee Cricket Fund to support refugees worldwide, backed by a £100,000 donation from the ECB and with an initial focus to raise money for Pitch Our Future.
In announcing the fund and the establishment of an advisory board, the MCC “invited” the ICC’s participation, while Clare Connor, the ECB’s deputy chief executive, hoped the fund’s launch would “inspire other cricketing organisations” to lend their support.
The announcements follow pleas to the ICC to ring-fence funding for the players on the basis that Afghanistan remain full ICC members despite no longer being able to fulfil the requirement to field a women’s team under its Taliban government.
The players wrote to the ICC last July asking for help in establishing themselves as a refugee team. In lieu of a response, they formed an Afghanistan Women’s XI with the help of Jones and a team of dedicated volunteers, and played their first game on Thursday.
As told to ESPNcricinfo’s Powerplay podcast, Jones was instrumental in helping 19 players formerly contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board and their families escape to Australia after the Taliban took over in 2021 and banned women’s sport in their country. Since then, women have been subjected to increasingly restrictive laws in Afghanistan which have effectively excluded them from public life.
Jones was helped by Emma Staples, Cricket Victoria’s Head of Diversity and Community, and Dr Catherine Ordway from the University of Canberra among others, whose efforts resulted in Thursday’s T20 exhibition against a Cricket Without Borders XI.
Cricket Without Borders won the fixture by seven wickets but the match represented a significant step for the Afghan players, not only in their development as cricketers but in raising awareness of their plight.
Jones said that for their first couple of years in exile, the Afghan players feared for their safety if it became known that they were in Australia playing cricket for various club and community sides.
“Now, we want to build a really strong community and high-performance programme around these young women, so they can develop not only as players, but also as coaches and administrators, so that they can stay within the sport and progress,” Jones said.
Pitch Our future aims to raise A$1.5 million for an initial three-year program which will also include education and life-skill support for the players, some of them not even 18 years old when they escaped and many of whom couldn’t speak English when they arrived in Australia.
Meanwhile, the MCC and MCC Foundation have launched the Global Refugee Cricket Fund to support refugees worldwide and with an initial focus to raise money for Pitch Our Future.
The Global Refugee Cricket Fund aims to provide access to facilities, offer education and mentorship, promote advocacy and awareness and build high-performance and community programs for players, coaches and administrators.
Announcing the fund in a press release on Friday, MCC said an advisory board would be set up including representatives from the MCC Foundation, MCC, ECB, Pitch Our Future, refugee organisations, and community leaders such as Afghan women’s advocates. “The ICC is also invited to participate in this effort,” the statement added.
Aiming to raise £1 million initially, the fund was boosted by the ECB’s donation.
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. We hope the launch of the Fund will inspire other cricketing organisations to support this cause, and to unlock cricket’s power to unite communities around the globe.”
Dr Sarah Fane, Director of the MCC Foundation, said: “With Pitch Our Future leading the way in Australia, we hope to amplify their efforts and inspire the global cricketing community to join us in making a difference.”
Donations to Pitch Our Future from Australia can be made here and from outside Australia via Global Refugee Fund here.
