CEO Pholetsi Moseki has explained CSA’s decision to send the Proteas to Sharjah to play a three-match ODI series against Afghanistan.
Cricket Australia has refused to play Afghanistan outside of ICC events as the Taliban-run country will not allow women to play sport, but CSA has taken a different approach to the issue.
“It’s a very complex thing, that’s why we have decided to align with the majority of the ICC members in showing solidarity to Afghanistan, their players and the cricket board,” Moseki told News24.
“All of us discuss the Afghanistan matter at every single ICC meeting and it will probably come up again at next month’s meeting. It’s something that concerns all of us, but we do understand that penalising the Afghanistan Cricket Board and their players may not necessarily be the best way to go about it.
“Our position is whether it’s fair to punish Afghanistan cricket, who had given 25 women’s contracts before the United States handed the rule of Afghanistan back to the Taliban.”
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Regarding Cricket Australia’s position, Moseki said: “I think the reason Australia went the route they went was because their government told them to. If our government were to say we shouldn’t play Afghanistan, which I don’t expect, we would probably treat it differently.
“But I would be sad about it because I do believe that the ICC is trying to manage this in other ways and not penalise the Afghanistan Cricket Board, which has developed these women players who are all over the world because they are running from the Taliban.
“This is more complex than what people are making it out to be.”
Afghanistan vs Proteas (ODI series)
18 September: 1st ODI, Sharjah
20 September: 2nd ODI, Sharjah
22 September: 3rd ODI, Sharjah
Photo: Pankaj Nangia/Gallo Images
