No cuts to Afghanistan Cricket Board funding planned by ICC
The Afghanistan Cricket Board will not see any of its funding from the International Cricket Council cut or diverted to its exiled women's cricketers.An initiative to support the displaced Afghan players was announced by the ICC following its board meeting in Zimbabwe last weekend.However, as reported by ESPN Cricinfo,, external cricket's global governing body will not reduce or siphon off money earmarked for the ACB, even though part of the criteria for full membership of the ICC is to support women's cricket. The ICC will support the Afghan women through a separate funding mechanism, while the ACB will continue to receive a payment believed to be in the region of £13m per year.All of that funding will go towards men's cricket in Afghanistan, with women's sport outlawed in the country since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.The ACB is the only full ICC member not to field a women's team.Instead, Afghanistan's women's cricketers will be funded by the ICC in conjunction with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).An Afghanistan Women's XI played an exhibition match in Melbourne in January and want to be recognised as a refugee team.But the ICC is understood to have acknowledged that the prospect of Afghanistan's women playing official international matches in the near future is a distant one as it would need to be sanctioned by the ACB.Afghanistan's women have been promised a robust high-performance programme offering "advanced coaching, world-class facilities and tailored mentorship" which the ICC hopes will "help them reach their full potential".Afghanistan's men's team have retained their Test status, reached the semi-finals of last year's T20 World Cup and participated in the Champions Trophy earlier this year.BBC Sport has approached the ACB for comment.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
ICC chair Jay Shah likes what he sees at Lord's and that can only be a good thing
Lord's looks a little different this week. The grass is the same shade of green, the pavilion still terracotta red, but the International Cricket Council, which runs the World Test Championship, has papered over every last trace of everyone else's branding, from the posters outside publicising Middlesex's upcoming games, to the sponsors' logos spray-painted on the outfield. They've changed every last hoarding and billboard around the ground, and reprogrammed the three big screens so that they display, throughout the game, the slogans of their own sponsors. 'Thums up Cola! Taste the Thunder!' They've even installed six big bright-orange sofas in the Allen Stand, on behalf of Sobha Realty, which goes by the motto 'Art of the Detail'. There were unconfirmed rumours that an apparatchik had been spotted taping over the egg-and-bacon stripes on the members' ties. Anything to make sure everything is arranged exactly as the ICC's chief executive, Jay Shah, likes it. If you don't know, Shah is one of sports great young achievers. He became secretary of the Gujarat Cricket Association when he was 25, secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India at 31, and chair of the International Cricket Council when he was just 36. You can only imagine how proud his family must be of it all. Especially his father, Amit Shah, who is Narendra Modi's right-hand man, and India's minister for home affairs. They say that when Shah started at the ICC he made a point of pushing through a few ruthless staffing decisions just to prove to everybody that he is his own man. The upshot, anyway, is that right now cricket is beginning to feel worryingly like it is an international sport being run on one man's whims. And this week, the game is making every effort to arrange itself around him. The MCC certainly wants him to be as comfortable as possible, especially after he didn't bother to turn up to its World Cricket Connects conference for 'the most influential voices in the sport' last weekend. It even invited Shah to ring the bell to mark the start of play before the final. I swear there were even a couple of MCC members giving him applause for doing such a good job of tugging on the rope. 'A privilege,' Shah wrote on X later that same afternoon, from his seat in the president's box, where the ECB's own executives, chair Richard Thompson and chief executive Richard Gould, seemed to be busy failing to get his attention. The first World Test Championship final had a worldwide audience of 180 million, this one is beginning to feel like it's trying to win over an audience of one, because the only way it can really be sure of itself is if Shah believes it's worth persisting with. Anytime two Test cricket fans get together, there's sure to be a conversation about the state of the game. There were 25,000 odd here on the first day, and the background chat was about whether or not the Test schedule should be changed so that India, Australia, and England can play each other more often; whether the 12 teams might soon be split into two divisions; if it even makes sense for the smaller nations to play it given that it costs so much money to arrange games against and between them; or whether, as everybody knows it ought to, the game needs to change the way revenues are being distributed so those same smaller teams can afford to play. Test cricket has been going for almost 150 years now, and yet somehow it still feels like it needs to prove it has a future. This is the first time that the showpiece final hasn't involved India, and the knock-on effect is that the viewing figures are unlikely to make much of an argument for the format. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion Good thing, then, that Australia and South Africa did during a superb first day's play. The quality of the batting, bowling, and catching was a cut above any of the cricket held in England so far this summer. There were spells, through the morning, and just after lunch, when the contest between South Africa's opening bowlers Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen, and Australia's vaunted top-order batsmen, Steve Smith, Marnus Labuschagne, and Travis Head, felt like stop-what-you're doing cricket. If you looked around the ground then, no one was nodding off, or nattering away, or looking at their phone. Almost everyone's attention was on what was happening in the middle. A little later in the day, once the sun was out, Shah was spotted taking selfies with fans around the back of the grandstands. He seemed to be enjoying himself. And everyone who loves Test cricket ought to be happy to hear it.
North Wales Chronicle
a day ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Kagiso Rabada five-for hands South Africa initiative before Australia fight back
Rabada overtook Allan Donald to become his country's most prolific Test wicket-taker by claiming five for 51 as Australia were bowled out for 212 on the opening day at Lord's. Yet on what proved a fine day for seam bowling, Australia hit back to reduce the Proteas to 43 for four in their reply before the close. Australia initially struggled in gloomy conditions after being put in to bat by Temba Bavuma. Rabada made his mark early on as he removed Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in the space of four deliveries. Marco Jansen – who finished with three for 49 – also caused problems and accounted for Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head. That left Australia 67 for four but their innings was repaired by the ever-dependable Steve Smith, who overcame a difficult start to carve out 66. In the process he became the leading overseas Test run-scorer at Lord's, reaching 591 before being caught – at the third attempt – by Jansen at slip off the spin of Aiden Markram. Australian pacers rattle South Africa's top order in the final session to seize the momentum at Stumps 👊 Follow LIVE ➡️ — ICC (@ICC) June 11, 2025 He had shared in a fifth-wicket stand of 79 with Beau Webster, who had survived two lbw scares in his own less-than-convincing start. The first saw him escape on review and the second, off Rabada, would have seen him removed if Bavuma had reviewed. He rode out those difficulties as he went on to top-score in the innings with 72 from 92 deliveries. He helped Australia to 190 for five at tea but then Keshav Maharaj prompted a collapse by bowling Alex Carey, who attempted an ill-fated reverse sweep on 23. Rabada returned to account for Pat Cummins and Webster and finished off the innings by bowling Mitchell Starc after Jansen had cleaned up Nathan Lyon. It took his career wicket tally to 332, two ahead of Donald. South Africa's batters were unable to build on the work of their attack as Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder and Tristan Stubbs all fell in a difficult 22-over session. Starc took two for 10 with Josh Hazlewood and Cummins grabbing a wicket apiece.
Powys County Times
a day ago
- Powys County Times
Kagiso Rabada five-for hands South Africa initiative before Australia fight back
Kagiso Rabada took five wickets as South Africa seized the early initiative in the World Test Championship final before Australia fought back on Wednesday. Rabada overtook Allan Donald to become his country's most prolific Test wicket-taker by claiming five for 51 as Australia were bowled out for 212 on the opening day at Lord's. Yet on what proved a fine day for seam bowling, Australia hit back to reduce the Proteas to 43 for four in their reply before the close. Australia initially struggled in gloomy conditions after being put in to bat by Temba Bavuma. Rabada made his mark early on as he removed Usman Khawaja and Cameron Green in the space of four deliveries. Marco Jansen – who finished with three for 49 – also caused problems and accounted for Marnus Labuschagne and Travis Head. That left Australia 67 for four but their innings was repaired by the ever-dependable Steve Smith, who overcame a difficult start to carve out 66. In the process he became the leading overseas Test run-scorer at Lord's, reaching 591 before being caught – at the third attempt – by Jansen at slip off the spin of Aiden Markram. Australian pacers rattle South Africa's top order in the final session to seize the momentum at Stumps 👊 Follow LIVE ➡️ — ICC (@ICC) June 11, 2025 He had shared in a fifth-wicket stand of 79 with Beau Webster, who had survived two lbw scares in his own less-than-convincing start. The first saw him escape on review and the second, off Rabada, would have seen him removed if Bavuma had reviewed. He rode out those difficulties as he went on to top-score in the innings with 72 from 92 deliveries. He helped Australia to 190 for five at tea but then Keshav Maharaj prompted a collapse by bowling Alex Carey, who attempted an ill-fated reverse sweep on 23. Rabada returned to account for Pat Cummins and Webster and finished off the innings by bowling Mitchell Starc after Jansen had cleaned up Nathan Lyon. It took his career wicket tally to 332, two ahead of Donald. South Africa's batters were unable to build on the work of their attack as Markram, Ryan Rickelton, Wiaan Mulder and Tristan Stubbs all fell in a difficult 22-over session. Starc took two for 10 with Josh Hazlewood and Cummins grabbing a wicket apiece.
