Outgoing ICC chair Greg Barclay criticised Australia for their boycott of bilateral series against Afghanistan while continuing to face them at global events.
Barclay succeeded interim ICC chair Imran Khawaja on November 24, 2020, and held the position until November 30, 2024. He was succeeded by Jay Shah.
Speaking to The Telegraph, Barclay said that, of all issues during his tenure, the controversy around Afghanistan’s Full Member status caused him “the most grief”.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board suspended its women’s cricket programme not too long after the Taliban took over the country. The female cricketers faced harsh ordeals. Several of them had to relocate, to Australia or elsewhere. As per its own rules, the ICC should have revoked Afghanistan’s Full Membership status, but they chose not to.
Meanwhile, Cricket Australia stopped playing bilateral series in any format with with Afghanistan. ECB CEO Richard Gould, too, has let know that England will adopt the same stance (though there is no series planned) until the ACB change theirs on women playing cricket.
Barclay: If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup
However, both Australia and England continue to face Afghanistan in global tournaments, as they did in the 2023 World Cup in India and the 2024 T20 World Cup in North America.
“If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup,” said Barclay. “Sure, it might cost you a semi-final place, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle.”
There is precedent in World Cup cricket. Australia and the West Indies conceded points to Sri Lanka in 1996, and England to Zimbabwe and New Zealand to Kenya in 2003.
“It is not the Afghanistan board’s fault,” added Barclay. “They used to have women’s cricket. I think our approach has been right. It would be easy to kick Afghanistan out, but their board haven’t done anything wrong. They’re just working under a decree and a series of laws that says this is what you have to do. I don’t think it would make a jot of difference to the ruling party there to kick them out.”
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It is worth mentioning that the ICC had temporarily revoked Zimbabwe’s Full Membership in 2019. Shashank Manohar, the ICC chair back then, had cited “political interference” as the reason. “What has happened in Zimbabwe is a serious breach of the ICC Constitution and we cannot allow it to continue unchecked,” Manohar had said back then.
“Maybe I’m a little naive, but I think cricket is such a force for good there [in Afghanistan], and it brings a lot of joy to a lot of people. It is better to leave it there and hope that it can foster a bit of a change,” Barclay told The Telegraph. “It’s a real feel-good story – a sport that was played in the refugee camps 25 years ago and now they have played in a World Cup semi-final. Do you really want to turn the tap off?”
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