The Afghanistan national women's cricket team was the team that represented the country of

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

in international

women's cricket Women's cricket is the form of the team sport of cricket when played by women only. It is played at the professional level in multiple countries around the world and 108 national teams participate internationally. 11 of them have WTest and WODI ...

matches.

History

2010–2014

The team was first formed in 2010, but disbanded in 2014. Although the team never played representative cricket in ICC competition, it had been scheduled to take part in the

2011 ACC Women's Twenty20 Championship The 2011 ACC Women's Twenty20 Championship was an international women's cricket tournament held in Kuwait from 18 to 25 February 2011. It was organised by the Asian Cricket Council (ACC). Ten teams participated in the tournament, down from twelve ...

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

, which ran from 17 to 25 February. The team was forced to withdraw from the tournament before travelling to Kuwait due to elements in Afghanistan opposing women's participation in sport. In 2012, the team participated in a 6 team tournament in

Dushanbe Dushanbe ( tg, Душанбе, ; ; russian: Душанбе) is the capital and largest city of Tajikistan. , Dushanbe had a population of 863,400 and that population was largely Tajik. Until 1929, the city was known in Russian as Dyushambe (r ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...

, and became Champion by winning four matches and tying one.

2020–August 2021

In November 2020, the

Afghanistan Cricket Board The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB; ps, د افغانستان کرکټ بورډ, fa, کرکت بورد افغانستان; formerly Afghanistan Cricket Federation) is the official governing body of cricket in the Afghanistan. It is Afghanista ...

awarded central contracts to twenty-five players, in their bid to form a national team to take part in ICC tournaments. In October 2020, ACB organised skills and fitness camp as well as the national team trial camp at the

Alokozay Kabul International Cricket Ground Kabul International Cricket Stadium ( ps, د کابل الکوزی نړيوال کرکټ لوبغالی, previously known as the Alokozay Kabul International Cricket Stadium) is a cricket stadium in Kabul, Afghanistan, which opened in 2011 and ha ...

for the players who were selected from the talent pool. In April 2021, the ICC awarded permanent

Test Test(s), testing, or TEST may refer to: * Test (assessment), an educational assessment intended to measure the respondents' knowledge or other abilities Arts and entertainment * ''Test'' (2013 film), an American film * ''Test'' (2014 film), ...

and

One Day International A One Day International (ODI) is a form of limited overs cricket, played between two teams with international status, in which each team faces a fixed number of overs, currently 50, with the game lasting up to 9 hours. The Cricket World C ...

(ODI) status to all full member women's teams.

August 2021–present

Concerns regarding the safety of the Afghan women cricketers and development of women's cricket in Afghanistan were raised following the

2021 Taliban offensive A military offensive by the Taliban insurgent group and other allied militants led to the fall of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan based in Kabul and marked the end of the nearly 20-year-old War in Afghanistan, that had begun following the ...

and the 15 August 2021 Fall of Kabul. , three of the Afghan women's cricket team,

Roya Samim Roya Samim is an Afghan women's cricketer, who currently plays for Canadian club cricket team Fredericton. She was expected to play for the Afghanistan women's national cricket team before the team was dissolved following the 2021 Taliban offe ...

and her two sisters, were in exile in Canada. Samim said that the team members remaining in Afghanistan were afraid of the Taliban. She stated that the

International Cricket Council The International Cricket Council (ICC) is the world governing body of cricket. Headquartered in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, its members are List of International Cricket Council members, 108 national associations, with 12 List of Internation ...

(ICC) had failed to respond to emails calling for help from team members seeking evacuation from Afghanistan, and that the Afghan Cricket Board (ACB) had given no help except to say "Wait". The ICC said that it was not aware of having received emails asking for help and that it was closely monitoring the situation. According to ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', the ICC was keeping in contact with the ACB in order to avoid acting unilaterally. An ACB spokesperson stated that the Taliban appeared to support the continuation of men's cricket. One of the team members was threatened by the Taliban after the fall of Kabul with being killed "if he triedto play cricket again". Another team member, in exile , stated that the ICC "never help d the women's cricket team, "always disappoint d the team, and only communicated with the ACB rather than contacting the women's team directly. Several of the team members expressed their expectations and hopes for the women's team to reorganise. Hamid Shinwari, chief executive officer of the ACB, stated in early September 2021 that he expected the Afghan women's cricket team "to be stopped". The Taliban also said that Afghan women would be barred from playing sport. However, Afghanistan Cricket Board's CEO Lutfullah Stanikzai clarified later in an Al Jazeera interview that women will be allowed to play cricket and that they would not be stopped.

Tournament history

Head coaches

Diana Barakzai 2010–2014 * Flag of Afghanistan (2013–2021)

Tuba Sangar 2014–2021

Captains

Diana Barakzai 2010–2014

References

{{National sports teams of Afghanistan Women's national cricket teams

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

Women's cricket in Afghanistan

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...