Afghan women cricketers say overseas signings for new league ignore their plight
Afghan women's cricketers have accused overseas players who signed for the inaugural Afghanistan Premier League of sending a message that women suffering in the country "can simply be ignored," the players said in comments published on 6 November 2026; the men's franchise tournament is due to start in the UAE in December. Nahida Sapan made the comments on the BBC Stumped podcast as she and other exiled players criticised international participation in the competition.
Women's participation in sport has been effectively outlawed in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, and many of the country's female cricketers left for their own safety. Sapan captained the Afghanistan Refugee Women's XI on this summer's tour of England. Afghanistan's women's players have repeatedly asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) to recognise them again as an international team and to commit to long-term funding; without official ICC recognition they play as the Afghan Refugee Women's Team. In April 2025 the ICC, together with the cricket boards of England, Australia and India, announced a joint programme to provide financial support for the players, and that funding was extended in July.
The player draft for the Afghanistan Premier League has recruited a substantial number of overseas cricketers: eight English players were signed, including Alex Hales, Tymal Mills, Joe Clarke, Olly Stone, Moeen Ali, Luke Wood, Tom Moores and Chris Wood. Scotland's George Munsey and Ireland all-rounder Curtis Campher also secured deals, while other England players including Dawid Malan and James Vince entered their names into the draft. Major international signings from further afield include Sri Lanka internationals Kusal Perera, Wanindu Hasaranga, Dushmantha Chameera and Kamindu Mendis, Australian batter D'Arcy Short, South African spinner Imran Tahir and Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan.
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) urged players in September to reconsider involvement in the league, and batter Ollie Pope withdrew from participation. England and Australia have both refused to schedule bilateral cricket with Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power, though England have continued to meet Afghanistan at global events, including World Cups in both limited-overs formats and the Champions Trophy; those fixtures prompted calls from MPs for England's game against Afghanistan in 2025 to be boycotted.
"For five years, girls in Afghanistan have been denied the right to play cricket and many other basic rights," Nahida Sapan said. "Foreign players had a real opportunity to stand with millions of Afghan women and girls by choosing not to participate. It may have seemed like a small action, but it could have sent a powerful message and put pressure on those responsible. This is not about being against cricket or Afghan men's cricket. It is about standing up for basic human rights."
Batter Firooza Amiri added a call for players to weigh their choices carefully: "To every international player considering participating in this league, I believe there is a responsibility to ask difficult questions," she said. "You have the freedom to choose where you play, which organisations you represent and which competitions you participate in, but that freedom also comes with a responsibility to understand the systems you may be helping to support. I am not asking international players to turn their backs on the people of Afghanistan. I am asking them to recognise the difference between supporting Afghan people and legitimising a system that has systematically taken away women's rights."
Afghanistan's men's team has retained full ICC membership despite the country's inability to meet the membership requirement of supporting a women's national side. Amiri emphasised that the women's objections were not a call to abandon the men's team, saying: "Imagine your daughter, your sister or your wife being told that she cannot attend school simply because she is a woman. Imagine being told that she cannot play sport, pursue her ambitions or participate in public life. We cannot celebrate the development of cricket in Afghanistan while ignoring the complete exclusion of half of its population from the game. The question is whether the international cricket community is prepared to stand by its own values when it comes to Afghan women."
The men's franchise league is expected to start in December in the UAE, though it is yet to be sanctioned by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The debate over overseas participation and the tournament's sanctioning status remains a focal point for the international attention the league has drawn.
