English players urged to reconsider Afghan T20 league involvement

English cricketers registered for the Afghanistan Premier League have been urged to reconsider participating because of the Taliban's treatment of women and girls, BBC Sport reported on Wednesday.

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Ollie Pope and Luke Wood are among those entered for October's draft. The BBC understands that the England and Wales Cricket Board's refusal to arrange bilateral men's fixtures against Afghanistan does not cover franchise leagues. Player clearances are likely if the International Cricket Council sanctions the event.

Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi asked players to consider the impact on Afghan women and called for the ICC to refuse approval. Amnesty International's Felix Jakens urged players and the ECB to consider the message participation would send, and asked cricketers to speak out against restrictions on women's rights.

The tournament has attracted more than 1,000 registrations, including 500 overseas players, Afghanistan Cricket Board spokesman Sayed Naseem Sadat told Pajhwok Afghan News on 22 September. He said registration had run from 1 to 19 September. The board's plans call for five teams to compete in the final quarter of this year.

The dispute comes alongside a separate ICC programme supporting Afghan refugee women cricketers. In a 13 July announcement, the governing body said its board had endorsed that programme's continuation at its Edinburgh annual conference. A reconstituted taskforce was charged with developing a route into ICC qualification pathways by 2030, rather than announcing immediate entry to those competitions.

The ICC said players based in Australia, England and Canada would retain access to coaching and physiotherapy where they live, alongside local training and matches. It also planned a gradual increase in opportunities for the women to train and compete together. Opponents would be selected to support their development towards qualification events, building on earlier group visits to India and England.

For the men's league, approval remains unresolved: the BBC reported that the ACB's application was still under ICC consideration. The competition is scheduled to begin in the United Arab Emirates on 27 December.