Cricket Australia is involved in a new tussle with the International Cricket Council (ICC) amidst all the chaos surrounding the Champions Trophy 2025. The Champions Trophy 2025 is in a bit of a hole due to the stand-off between India and Pakistan.
Now, the chairman of Cricket Australia Mike Baird has come out in the open to respond to the former ICC chairman Greg Barclay regarding Australia’s position of playing Afghanistan in bilateral cricket tournaments.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2025: ICC Board meeting cancelled due to shocking reason
Greg Barclay’s comments on Cricket Australia’s position
Barclay’s tenure as an ICC chairman recently ended as the new chairman Jay Shah took over the role. During an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Barclay accused the board of hypocrisy and claimed that Australia must not even play Afghanistan in World Cup matches if they really want to make a political statement.
“If you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup, Sure, it might cost you a semi-final place, but principles are principles. It’s not about having half a principle,” Barclay had said.
Mike Baird responds to Greg Barclay’s comments
Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird came out in the open to reply to Greg Barclay. Baird claimed that these are Barclay’s personal views and he takes pride in the position taken by Cricket Australia on this sensitive situation. He reiterated CA’s continuous support for Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team in the future.
“I saw those comments this morning, and I hadn’t heard those views before in kind of any forum. So obviously he’s entitled to his view. He’s going on to new things, and we wish him well on that, but we’re very proud of the position we’ve taken.”
“We’re supporting the Afghan women’s cricket team and those members that are still here, and we’ll be doing that at the end of the summer,” Baird said.
Stating that people have different views, Mike Baird claimed that his board has taken a strong position on this issue and remains committed to supporting women’s cricket in Afghanistan.
“People have different views, of course, but we’re very comfortable with the position we’ve taken. There’s all types of lines you can draw. We’ve drawn a line, we’ve taken a position and we’re proudly standing up where we think we should,” Baird noted.
“I think that event that’s going to come at the end of January is a celebration of women and what we’re seeing in the women’s game in this country. We remain proud of it,” he added.
Deteriorating women’s cricket in Afghanistan
Ever since the Taliban took over the government in Afghanistan, the country’s women have seen a lot of suffering. Girls have been barred from studies and going to schools have been banned since.
Afghanistan’s women’s cricket team too has suffered because of the political situation in the country. Among all the full member nations in the ICC, Afghanistan is the only country not to have a full-fledged women’s cricket team.