. At the Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia will go face to face with England with the prize of a 16-0 Ashes whitewash up for grabs. Only a few miles up the road, at Junction Oval, an Afghanistan XI are playing a 20-over match against a Cricket Without Borders Charity XI, their first match under the Afghanistan banner since the Taliban seized power in 2021 and they were forced to flee for their lives.
For the Afghan women, there is no Ashes trophy at stake: instead, they are playing for the chance to salvage something from the ashes of the dream of representing their country at cricket, a dream they feared they had left behind when they fled their home nation more than three years ago.
Benafsha Hashimi and Sofia Yosofazi are two of the women involved. “I feel like we are making history,” Yosofazi said. “It’s the first step to represent Afghanistan, and have everyone know that Afghan women can play cricket.”
“We are opening the door to at least have a match that tells the world that we are here, and we have Afghan women who are interested in playing cricket,” Hashimi added. “It’s a really, really good feeling.”
The pair are among a group of 25 who were honoured to receive the first ever professional contracts for women from the Afghanistan Cricket Board in 2020. But a year later the Taliban returned to power and immediately banned all women’s sport. The dream quickly became a nightmare: the contracts placed them directly in the Taliban’s firing line.
The majority were able to escape to Australia, alongside their families. Many did not speak a word of English, but cricket has proved a universal language. Olivia Thornton, the chief executive of Cricket ACT, praised the support they have received. “The way in which the Australian cricket …
Read More
