Jos Buttler, England’s captain, says he doesn’t believe a boycott of Afghanistan cricket is “the way to go”, ahead of the men’s teams’ scheduled meeting in next month’s Champions Trophy.
The contest, set for Lahore on February 26, has come under sustained political scrutiny in the past few weeks, following a letter from Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi to Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, which called out the “insidious dystopia” and “sex apartheid” facing 14 million women in Afghanistan under the ruling Taliban regime.
In her letter, which was signed by more than 160 British politicians, Antoniazzi urged England’s men’s team to “speak out against the horrific treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban”, where female participation in sport has effectively been banned since 2021. She added that a boycott would “send a clear signal that such grotesque abuses will not be tolerated”.
Gould’s response had been to reject that call, saying that the matter required a…
