The uncertainty around the match between England and Afghanistan at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is finally. As per reports, the match between these two nations is going ahead as per scheduled. This is a big relief for the fans of both teams, and especially for ICC, who could do without more off-field issues after India and Pakistan schedule fiasco.
The calls for cancelling this match originated from Afghanistan’s current government, Taliban’s ban on female participation in the sports, which goes against ICC regulations. As per reports, as many as 160 British politicians voted to boycott the match against Afghanistan. However, England Cricket Board (ECB) opined that a more coordinated approach is needed in this matter.
“We remain of the view that a coordinated international response by the cricketing community is the appropriate way forward, and will achieve more than any unilateral action by the ECB in boycotting this match,” ECB chairman Richard Thompson said.
Thompson also highlighted that cricket is one of the few source of enjoyment for the people of Taliban and that is one of the reasons he cited as to go ahead with the match against Afghanistan.
“We have also heard that for many ordinary Afghans, watching their cricket team is one of the few remaining source of enjoyment. As such, we can confirm that we will play this fixture.”
Afghanistan cricket team has made significant improvement in all forms of cricket in the last few years. They are in the ICC Champions Trophy purely on merit, as they finished in top-8 in the 2023 ODI World Cup.
As for the tournament, the eight-team ICC Champions Trophy 2025 is set to kick-off on February 19 with the match against host nation Pakistan and New Zealand. The matches will be played across Pakistan and United Aram Emirates.
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