Jos Buttler believes that next month’s Champions Trophy match between England and Afghanistan should go ahead as planned, despite calls for a boycott over the Taliban regime’s attack on women’s rights.
A cross-party group of over 160 MPs, including Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage, have signed a letter asking the England and Wales cricket authorities to refuse to play the match in Lahore on February 26.
ECB chief executive Richard Gould subsequently wrote to the International Cricket Council condemning “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan, where women’s participation in sport has been effectively banned since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
Gould, however, rejected the idea of the ECB taking a unilateral decision to withdraw from the second group match of the eight-team Champions Trophy, calling on the ICC to take collective action.
After speaking to England’s director of men’s cricket Rob Key on the hot-button issue, Buttler has similar views on the ongoing match against Afghanistan.
“In such political situations, as a player you try to stay as informed as possible,” the England captain said ahead of his team’s first T20 match against India in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, women’s participation in sports has been effectively banned, but Buttler said he was not in favor of a boycott
“The experts know a lot more about this, so I’m trying to keep in dialogue with Rob Key and the guys above to see how they see it. I don’t think a boycott is a good solution.
“The players didn’t really care about it. You try to educate yourself and read about these things.
“There have been some good things written about this, which I have used and spoken to many people to gather expert opinions. In such situations, I am guided by experts.
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Watch England head coach Brendon McCullum confirm that Buttler will not feature in the series in India
“But certainly as a player you don’t want political situations to influence the sport. We hope we can go to the Champions Trophy, play that match and have a really good tournament.”
