PRETORIA, South Africa — South Africa’s sports minister, Gayton McKenzie, is urging the country’s cricket team, the Proteas, to skip their upcoming game against Afghanistan. He believes this is important because the Taliban government in Afghanistan has forbidden women from participating in sports and has disbanded their national women’s cricket team.
McKenzie said, “As the sports minister, I don’t have the power to make the final choice about whether we play against Afghanistan. But if it was my choice, we definitely wouldn’t play.” He added that, as someone who experienced unfair restrictions during apartheid, he finds it wrong to ignore similar issues affecting women today.
The Proteas are set to play Afghanistan on February 21 in a group match in Karachi, Pakistan. Recently, more than 160 politicians in the UK also encouraged the England team to cancel their match against Afghanistan on February 26.
McKenzie accused the International Cricket Council (ICC) of hypocrisy for not enforcing its own rules about supporting both men’s and women’s cricket. He pointed out that Sri Lanka Cricket was suspended by the ICC last year for political interference, but the same action hasn’t been taken against Afghanistan. He said, “This shows that political problems in sports are being ignored there.”
McKenzie stressed that Cricket South Africa and the ICC should think about the message cricket sends to the world, especially to women who play sports. He hopes that everyone in cricket, including fans, players, and officials, will stand in support of Afghan women athletes.
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