The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) introduced in an announcement on Thursday that it has determined to proceed with the Champions Trophy 2025 match in opposition to Afghanistan, regardless of requires a boycott.
A number of stakeholders within the nation have urged England to skip the sport in opposition to Afghanistan, a nation that disbanded its girls’s cricket setup following the Taliban takeover.
“Right now, the ECB Board mentioned current requires England to boycott the forthcoming males’s Champions Trophy match in opposition to Afghanistan within the wake of the widespread violation of ladies’s rights within the nation beneath the Taliban,” the assertion stated.
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“The Board recognises there are completely different views and opinions on the difficulty of boycotting the match and has listened rigorously. We’ve got been in shut contact with the Authorities, the Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC), our England Males’s gamers and different stakeholders to debate this matter, in addition to contemplating how greatest the ECB can assist these girls cricketers who’ve fled Afghanistan,” it added.
“Following this, we stay of the view {that a} co-ordinated worldwide response by the cricketing neighborhood is the suitable method ahead, and can obtain greater than any unilateral motion by the ECB in boycotting this match,” the ECB added, confirming that the staff will go forward with the fixture.
England will tackle Afghanistan in a Group B fixture on February 26, 2025, on the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.