England’s upcoming Champions Trophy cricket match against Afghanistan should go ahead despite calls for a boycott over the IE treatment of women, according to a senior British government minister.
A group of more than 160 British politicians have called on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to refuse to play Afghanistan in protest at the women’s sports policy of the IEA.
Lisa Nandy, British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said the match should be played amid concerns a boycott would see England docked points were they to forfeit the game.
“I do think it should go ahead,” Nandy told the BBC on Friday.
She added: “I’m instinctively very cautious about boycotts in sports, partly because I think they’re counterproductive.
“I think they deny sports fans the opportunity that they love, and they can also very much penalise the athletes and the sports people who work very, very hard to reach the top of their game, and then they’re denied the opportunities to compete.
“They are not the people that we want to penalise for the appalling actions of the Taliban (IEA) against women and girls.”
