Cricket South Africa has confirmed it will continue to engage Afghanistan in bilateral fixtures because it does not believe in punishing the men's team for the Taliban's actions in their home country.
CSA's statement comes in response to severe criticism including from activist organisation Lawyers for Human Rights, which said that by playing Afghanistan, South Africa were tacitly endorsing a repressive regime and called for CSA to boycott Afghanistan. The Taliban government has not only banned women from playing sport but from most areas of public life which the South African government has expressed grave concern over while not calling for outright sanction. CSA has taken a similar approach.
In a statement issued on Thursday, CSA confirmed that although it believes "women's cricket deserves equal recognition and success," it would not unilaterally isolate the Afghanistan men's team for its country's government policy.
"CSA remains mindful that gender equity should never come at the expense of one gender over another," the statement said. "We recognise that advocating for the advancement of one gender should not undermine the rights of the other. CSA believes there is no justification for subjecting Afghan cricket players - both male and female -to secondary persecution for the actions of the Taliban. We will continue to engage with member countries within the formal structures of the International Cricket Council (ICC) to address this matter."
CSA's stance is also in line with the position of the ICC, which is wary of banning Afghanistan despite their being the only Full Member without a women's side. ESPNcricinfo understands that among the complexities of forcing the ACB field a women's team is the risk it could take of retribution from the Taliban, which could include putting those women's lives at risk.
Cricket Australia, on the other hand, has taken the opposite position and on advice from its government has refused to play Afghanistan bilaterally in protest against human rights abuses. CSA does not believe this tactic will be effective and prefers to apply a wide lens on the issue. "Gender advocacy in cricket should never be advanced by meting out punishment on innocent cricket administrators and players for the misdemeanours of a regime that stands to lose nothing from that punishment," its statement said.
South Africa are in a unique position to comment such as this because they were banned from international sport themselves from 1970, as a global response to the Apartheid regime. One of the continued discussion points of their isolation was what it would do to sporting careers. At the time, only white South Africans were allowed to represent South Africa, while people of colour had no hope of a professional sports career. South Africa were readmitted after two decades and questions over racial representation remain part of their reality. When asked whether the banning of their organisation also punished administrators and players, an insider pointed out that while it did, it was not effective in advocating for change. "The apartheid government continued with its atrocious policies despite their athletes being banned from international sport. What truly broke the camel's back were economic sanctions."
CSA also argues that the situation at the ACB is slightly different as there were steps being taken to have a women's team prior to the Taliban takeover. "Any measures we consider must take into account the progress made by the Afghanistan Cricket Board in promoting women's cricket prior to the Taliban's ban on female participation in sports in August 2021."
In 2020, the ACB pledged contracts to 25 female players, which showed steps towards creating a women's team were being made. Those players attended a training camp and were due to play against Oman but the games did not take place. Many of them are now in exile in Australia and have called on the ICC to support the creation of a refugee team for them based at the East Asian Cricket office. It is not known if any of the refugee sportswomen are in South Africa.
CSA's statement is also a nod to the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA) who, last week, issued an advisory supporting the promotion of women in cricket and called on CSA to use its leverage to highlight rights for Afghan women. Temba Bavuma, South Africa's ODI captain, echoed SACA's sentiments and called women's rights "something that is quite strong within my own values."
South Africa and Afghanistan are currently playing a three-match ODI series in the UAE. Bavuma missed the first match, which South Africa lost by six wickets, with illness. The second and third ODIs are scheduled to be played on Friday and Sunday. This three-match contest was not on the original Future Tours Programme (FTP) and was sought by CSA and the ACB with a view to preparing for next year's Champions Trophy.