South Africa’s sports minister Gayton McKenzie has urged the Proteas to boycott their 2025 ICC Champions Trophy game against Afghanistan due to the Taliban government’s ban on women’s sports and disbanding the women’s cricket team since it came back to power in 2021. Temba Bavuma-led South Africa will begin their 2025 Champions Trophy campaign through a Group B clash against Afghanistan at the National Stadium in Karachi, Pakistan on February 21. The two teams are in Group B alongside England and Australia.
“To be clear, the ICC has accepted the principle of equality in sport, and that member nations should be developing both male and female players. This does not happen in the case of Afghanistan, suggesting that political interference in the administration of sport is being tolerated there. In the same breath, Sri Lanka was banned in 2023 for political interference.
“I am aware that the ICC, like most international sporting mother bodies, professes not to tolerate political interference in the administration of sport, despite its obvious inconsistency with Afghanistan. It is not for me as the Sports Minister to make the final decision on whether South Africa should honour cricketing fixtures against Afghanistan.
“If it was my decision, then it certainly would not happen. As a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world.
“Cricket South Africa, the federations of other countries and the ICC will have to think carefully about the message the sport of cricket wishes to send the world, and especially the women in sports. I hope that the consciences of all those involved in cricket, including the supporters, players and administrators, will take a firm stand in solidarity with the women of Afghanistan,” said McKenzie in a statement on his ‘X’ account on Thursday.
Previously, a letter by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, with nearly 160 UK members of the parliament signing it, called for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to boycott their match against Afghanistan, to be played in Lahore on February 26.
Though ECB chair Richard Gould rejected calls for the boycott of the game, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer also called on the ICC to follow its own rules, which make it mandatory for any full member that fails to field men’s and women’s teams in international cricket to be suspended.
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