Jos Buttler hopes England’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan will go ahead despite calls for a boycott | Cricket news
Jos Buttler believes England’s Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan next month should go ahead as planned despite calls for a boycott over the Taliban regime’s attacks on women’s rights.
A cross-party group of more than 160 MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage, signed a letter calling on the England and Wales Cricket Board to refuse to play the match in Lahore on 26 February.
ECB chief executive Richard Gould subsequently wrote to the International Cricket Council condemning “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan, where women’s participation in the sport has been effectively banned since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
However, Gould rejected the idea of the ECB taking a unilateral decision to pull out of the eight-team Champions Trophy second group match, calling for collective action by the ICC.
After speaking to England’s director of men’s cricket Rob Key about the burning issue, Buttler is of a similar opinion on holding the contest against Afghanistan.
“In political situations like this, as a player you try to be as informed as possible,” England’s white-ball captain said ahead of the first T20 against India in Kolkata on Wednesday.
“The experts know a lot more about it, so I’ve been trying to stay in dialogue with Rob Key and the guys above to see how they see it. I don’t think a boycott is the way to go.
“The players didn’t really worry too much about it. Those things, you try to educate yourself and read about those things.
“There’s been some good stuff written about it that I’ve used and I’ve talked to a lot of people to try to get expert opinion. I’m guided by these experts for these situations.
“But certainly as a player, you don’t want political situations to affect the sport. We hope to go to the Champions Trophy and play that game and have a really good tournament.”
