Overview
- The team met King Charles at Clarence House on Wednesday in a photo opportunity that highlighted their campaign to regain a place in international cricket.
- Players say they fled Afghanistan after the 2021 Taliban ban on women’s sport and that most now live and train in Australia with a few based in the UK and Canada.
- The England and Wales Cricket Board is supporting the team’s UK tour this month and the players are staging exhibition matches during the T20 World Cup period to raise their profile.
- Campaigners and players have described evacuations helped by humanitarian visas from Australia and by Australian Army SAS operating on the ground but those accounts have limited independent corroboration.
- The team is urging the ICC to recognise them and to consider action over the Taliban ban, a demand that tests cricket governance because the ICC currently funds and recognises only Afghanistan’s men’s structure.