Afghanistan women’s refugee team to play in Melbourne after three-year fight

Australian cricket has finally answered pleas for a refugee Afghanistan women’s cricket team to play together, organising a game to be held in Melbourne in January, more than three years after the players fled the Taliban.

Dubbed “an Afghanistan women’s XI”, the team will play against a side assembled by the Cricket Without Borders charity at Junction Oval on Thursday January 30, a few hours before day one of the pink ball women’s Ashes Test to be played under lights at the MCG.

Firooza Amiri (left), Friba Hotak and Firooza Afghan are determined to represent their homeland.Credit: Simon Schluter

Prior to the game, the players will get together for a two-day camp in Melbourne to reconnect and train with each other. Some of the players, who fled Afghanistan over a period of months following the Taliban takeover in 2021, have been based in Canberra, making it difficult for the team to unite in one location.

The players spoke in an interview with this masthead last month about their struggles to keep alive the dream of playing together, after losing their chance to play as contracted players for Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s rule.

“Many people across cricket and the community have come together to provide support for members of the Afghanistan women’s team since their relocation to Australia, and this match will be a celebration of that work,” Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said in a statement provided to this masthead.

“I’m delighted that their ambition to play together will be achieved in this exhibition match, which will be a wonderful addition to the many events around the day-night women’s Ashes Test.”

Numerous cricket organisations, including Cricket Victoria and Cricket ACT, will be involved in the staging of the match, for which plans are still being finalised. There are ambitions for the game to grow into more regular fixtures for the Afghanistan players, both in Melbourne and elsewhere.

“With all the time that is going, the girls are losing hope to play cricket any more. When you go to another country, it’s not easy to get into that country and start playing cricket,” Firooza Amiri, one of the players, told this masthead last month.

“Also, they are not all playing in Dandenong, they are in different areas, different cities. Since we arrived here, they are feeling hopeless, they are thinking there’s not going to be a way they can play for Afghanistan.

An Afghan woman poses for a photo with her cricket bat in Kabul in 2022.Credit: AP

“But when there is no Afghanistan team, they are not going to keep playing. They are thinking about going to other sports maybe, and they are working to send money back to their families in Afghanistan. I know Australia is my second home, but still I want to play for Afghanistan.”

Several attempts have previously been made by various groups to get the Afghanistan players together to compete, but repeatedly hit a roadblock – the International Cricket Council’s stipulation that only the Afghanistan Cricket Board could organise the team.

In July, the players released a collective statement crying out for support to be able to play together as a refugee XI.

“Like the Afghanistan men’s team are afforded, we aim to compete at the highest levels,” they wrote. “We want to recruit and train girls and women who love cricket, to show the world the talent of Afghan women and to demonstrate the great victories they can achieve if given a chance through the leadership and financial support of the ICC.”

Cricket had been provided a template by soccer. An Afghanistan women’s soccer team, convened and funded by A-League club Melbourne Victory, has been rising through the divisions of local competitions in Melbourne since the players also fled the Taliban in 2021.

“Our ultimate goal remains to get the team once again competing in FIFA competitions so that the girls can once again represent their country,” Melbourne Victory football manager John Didulica said. “If the team didn’t stay together through this period and show the unity and commitment that they have, it would almost be impossible to be pursuing this campaign.

“The team has enabled shows of unity every single week as well as keeping the players fit and motivated to continue as footballers when it may have been so much easier to walk away.

“This visibility and this preparation means the team is ready to take the international stage and has a vehicle – a face – to show to FIFA to continue to fight for recognition. If the players had been separated and left to their own devices, it makes that step so much harder and more distant.”

Cricket Without Borders was established in 2011 to provide opportunities for female cricketers to play around the world. Past members of the program have included Alana King and Nicole Faltum.

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