England are slated to play against Afghanistan on February 26 in Lahore in the upcoming Champions Trophy 2025. Ahead of that, several British political leaders have raised concerns, calling for boycotting the match. Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi wrote a letter to the ECB chief executive Richard Gould, calling out the ‘insidious dystopia’ and ‘sex apartheid’ that the 14 million women are facing in Afghanistan under the ruling Taliban regime.
The MP has also advised the cricketers to speak out on the matter and boycott the match against Afghanistan. She believes that the boycott will send a strong statement that ‘such grotesque abuses will not be tolerated’. However, the ECB chief has rejected the idea, stating that the ICC needs to intervene and unilateral action taken by a particular country might not help the cause.
Ahead of the first T20I against England at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, captain Jos Buttler opened up on the matter. He mentioned that as cricketers, the players are trying to be as informed as possible and he had discussions with ECB managing director Rob Key about the same. However, he clarified that a boycott may not be the right solution.
“Political situations like this, as a player you’re trying to be as informed as you can be. The experts know a lot more about it, so I’ve been trying to stay in dialogue with Rob Key and the guys above to see how they see it. I don’t think a boycott is the way to go about it,” Buttler said in the press conference.
“The players haven’t really worried too much about it. You’re trying to educate yourself and read up on these things. There’s been some good stuff written about it that I’ve tapped into and I’ve spoken to quite a few people to try and gather expert opinion. As a player, you don’t want political situations to affect sport. We hope to go to the Champions Trophy and play that game and have a really good tournament,” he added.
England will also be playing Australia and South Africa in the group stage of the Champions Trophy. Notably, captain Buttler is already under immense pressure for failing to qualify for the semi finals of the ODI World Cup in 2023 and for the finals of the T20 World Cup in 2024. In case England fail to leave a mark in the Champions Trophy, he is likely to be axed as the leader.
