Australia-Afghanistan Test indefinitely postponed

The historic Test between Australia and Afghanistan has been indefinitely postponed. The development doesn’t come as a surprise as Cricket Australia (CA) had already confirmed that the Test going ahead is highly unlikely given the Taliban’s stand on women’s cricket.

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The Taliban, who recently swept to power in Afghanistan, have barred Afghan women from playing cricket on religious grounds. Given the CA pushes for equality in sports, they said they won’t entertain the men’s team as well if the Taliban is going suppress women’s cricket.

Cricket Tasmania boss Dominic Baker confirmed the development and said the match won’t go ahead unless the Taliban reconsiders its decision to ban women’s cricket.

"It'll be formally postponed indefinitely this week. That will come out in the next couple of days," Baker said.

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"It's about giving the Afghanistan government some direction around what they have to do to get back into sport.

"It's not acceptable that they don't allow female sport. If they want to play competitive male sport, particularly in the cricket sphere, they have to rethink what they do with female sport, " said Baker to Triple M Hobart.

Baker further said the match is not cancelled and it can still be played later if the Taliban has a change in mind and uplifts the ban on women cricket. "We're not going to cancel it altogether," he said.

Meanwhile, things could get difficult for Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup as Australia Test skipper Tim Paine hinted that Australia could boycott Afghanistan in the World Cup as well.

“I think so. I think it will be something discussed team-by-team,” Paine said on SEN sports radio when asked if nations would take stand at the tournament. “To see them pull of the tournament or have countries boycott it will literally, I think, be something that teams will discuss on the eve of that World Cup.