The ICC has attached a firm date to the Afghan women’s refugee team’s path toward international cricket for the first time. Officials confirmed at the ICC’s Annual Conference in Edinburgh that a reconstituted Special Taskforce will work toward including the team in ICC qualification pathways by 2030. Many of these players signed contracts with the Afghanistan Cricket Board in 2020, before the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 forced them out of the country.
The team still cannot compete under the Afghanistan name, since that designation remains with the ACB, and the Taliban government’s ongoing restrictions on women’s rights rule out any official recognition from Kabul. The refugee squad will instead build toward international fixtures under a different identity, a change that gives displaced players a route back into competitive cricket that did not exist a few years ago.
New Members Join the Special Taskforce
The taskforce now includes representatives from the BCCI, the ECB and Cricket Australia, alongside two new additions: Dr Ros Rivaz, who recently joined the ICC as an independent director, and Sarah Keane, Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, who also sits on the ICC’s Chief Executives’ Committee. These members will develop a training and fixtures programme intended to carry the team through to 2030.
The ACB had agreed to develop a women’s team as a condition of its Full Membership in 2017 and had begun making progress toward that goal. The Taliban’s return to power in 2021 ended those plans before Afghanistan’s women had played a single international match. Most of the contracted players left the country that year, with the majority resettling in Australia and smaller numbers relocating to Canada and the United Kingdom.
The Team’s Return to Competitive Cricket
An Afghanistan Women’s XI took the field together for the first time in January 2025, in Melbourne, nearly four years after most players had fled the country. The team has since completed two tours, traveling to India in 2025 during the women’s ODI World Cup and to England this year alongside the T20 World Cup.
An ICC support initiative funded both trips, backed by the BCCI, ECB, and CA, along with the Pitch Our Future fundraising campaign, and this same funding structure will continue to support the taskforce’s development plan. That plan includes coaching and physiotherapy access in players’ home locations and organized opportunities for the squad to train and tour together.
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Players and Supporters Respond to the Roadmap
Nahida Sapan, one of the team’s players, said the programme has already made a difference by allowing the group to continue playing and to come together as a team despite living in different countries.
Firooza Afghan described the tours to India and England as among the most memorable experiences of her life and said a long-term view of ICC qualification pathways gives the team a clear goal to work toward.
Mel Jones, the former Australia international who assisted several players during their resettlement in Australia, said the roadmap sends an important message that talent and determination deserve opportunity.
The ICC has not yet determined which regional pathway the team will join. Afghanistan’s men’s team competes in Asia, but since most of the women’s refugee squad lives in Australia, the East Asia-Pacific region could offer a more practical alternative.
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