MELBOURNE: Cricket Australia has postponed the historical first-ever Test match, which was scheduled to be played in Hobart later this month, between Australia and Afghanistan after the latter’s Taliban regime banned women from playing cricket.
According to the Australian cricketing authorities, the decision was taken after consulting with “relevant stakeholders”.
The Taliban had declared that Afghan women would no longer participate in any of the sports after dethroning the country’s elected government in August. Outraged by the decision, the Aussie cricketers want the Test to be postponed until the newly installed Taliban regime lifts the ban from women’s cricket.
Meanwhile, Australia’s ODI captain Aaron Finch is hopeful that the Test match against Afghanistan would be rescheduled soon.
Finch told reporters, “It would have been a great Test match but I think they still have that in the schedule at some point down the track.”
He said, “It is really important for world cricket that we have seen, particularly in the shortest formats of the game, how important and how big an impact the Afghan team has had on world cricket.
“So hopefully that can get back up and running as soon as possible,” he concluded.