Usman Khawaja on Australia’s boycott of Afghanistan

Australia's boycott of Afghanistan

Cricket Australia had boycotted an ODI series against Afghanistan in 2023, and indefinitely postponed a T20I series in 2024 to stand against the Taliban government’s stance against women in Afghanistan.

Between the two series, however, they played Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup, drawing reactions from some corners. They played Afghanistan again at the 2024 T20 World Cup, where Afghanistan beat them for the first time. After the triumph, Afghan captain Rashid Khan – a regular at the BBL for the Adelaide Strikers – questioned Cricket Australia’s stance.

Khawaja backs Afghanistan

When Rashid tweeted to celebrate the historic win, he found support from Usman Khawaja, who wrote: “so sad we can’t see you play in Australia”. In an interview with The Age, Khawaja stressed further on the subject.

“I personally think yes we should be playing Afghanistan,” said Khawaja. “I am sympathetic to both sides of the puzzle. I totally respect and agree with a lot of aspects of the stance Cricket Australia has in terms of women’s cricket in Afghanistan, but there’s also another side to it, of promoting and growing the game.

“This is the second time Australia have backed out of a bilateral series, and I talked to Rashid Khan. He was really disappointed, more so because the Afghanistan people love cricket, and for them cricket is one of the few things they enjoy and brings happiness, and the fact they were going to play Australia was going to be huge, and they don’t get to see that now."

Khawaja: "People are separate from the government"

The Australian Test opener elaborated that Afghanistan players share the same stance as Cricket Australia in terms of the human rights situation in their country.

“So it actually hurts the people, and the people are separate from the government. When you look at it in that respect, you hurt people.

"And also the players have stood up for the exact same cause as CA has. Rashid has shown me his tweets, and that’s tough to do playing for Afghanistan. So then he said all you’re doing is depriving us players, too. We want to play the best team in the world and we can’t.”

Khawaja went to the extent of pointing out the inherent hypocrisy in CA’s stance: “It’s a little bit hypocritical too if we say no we’re not going to play Afghanistan, but then allowing Afghanistan cricketers to play in the BBL. They 100 per cent should [play], but then how do you do one and not the other?”

It is worth a mention that even during South Africa’s ban during the peak of the apartheid regime in the country, their cricketers played in both England and Australia. The restriction was usually on teams touring South Africa.

“We’re benefiting in the BBL from having Afghanistani players, but we’re giving no benefits back by playing them. So how can we benefit from Afghanistani cricketers in the BBL but then say we’re not going to play against you in a bilateral series?”

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