Afghanistan players will start training soon in Kabul.
As violence intensifies in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country, the International Cricket Council (ICC) has an eye on the massive humanitarian crisis in the country with the world’s governing body monitoring the developments in Kabul.
The ICC office in Dubai is reportedly in constant touch with the members of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) in Kabul to “fully understand the impact of changes” are happening, as the current turmoil has put a question mark on Afghanistan’s participation in the upcoming cricketing events.
A source told Times of India on Tuesday (August 17): “The ICC is in contact with ACB officials and will continue to monitor the situation.”
Read Also: Afghanistan will play T20 World Cup 2021: media manager Hikmat Hassan
Afghanistan is all set to play an ODI series against Pakistan in Sri Lanka next month and then some of the key players are to participate in the second phase of the Indian Premier League (IPL 2021) before the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 in United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Oman in October-November.
While the Taliban made it clear that they don’t have any issue with cricket and cricketers, but there is still a big question mark on the cricketing activities in the country, and most importantly their participation in the T20 World Cup 2021 later this year.
However, the Afghanistan team’s media manager Hikmat Hasan said the team will take part in the showpiece event in the UAE and Oman while the ACB CEO Hamid Shinwari also insisted that there will be no change in their cricketing activities due to the current chaos.
Shinwari said told Indian Express: “All is well with cricket. Even before, there was no interference in cricketing activities in Afghanistan. We have support from there too and we are playing all our activities as per schedule.”
(With TOI Inputs)