‘Don’t mix sports with politics’ - Former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan on Australia postponing Test match against Afghanistan

Australia managed to win narrowly by four runs against Afghanistan in their last match of the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide on Friday, November 4. Rashid Khan, who came to bat down the order almost took the game away from Australia but his side fell agonisingly short at the end.

Afghanistan had not played a single T20I in Australia leading into the T20 World Cup 2022. Although, there was a one-off Test scheduled to be played between both countries last year starting from November 27, it was postponed by Cricket Australia.

Cricket Australia had made its stance absolutely crystal clear that there is ‘no alternative’ but to postpone the Test match against Afghanistan following Taliban's stance on women’s sports. Moreover, former Australia Test skipper Tim Paine had also voiced to boycott the matches against the Afghanistan team in the men's T20 World Cup 2021.

Former Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan, on the contrary, believes that politics and sports should not be mixed with each other.

“See, we must leave sports to just sports and not mix it with Politics. The culture in Afghanistan is different. Australia’s skipper (referring to Tim Paine in this context) had pledged not to play against Afghanistan and that was his stance and everyone in the cricketing fraternity had something to say about the issue,” said Asghar on 'BatBricks7 presents Run Ki Runneeti' on CricTracker.

ICC knows everything: Asghar Afghan

The former Afghanistan skipper stated that the ICC is aware of the political climate in the country. Furthermore, he stated that the nation must focus first on taking the men’s cricket team forward.

“I think men’s cricket has a platform, let us first take our men’s cricket forward then the government will decide what to do. I do not think we must waste time on all of this. The ICC understands and knows everything,” added Asghar.

Click here to know the T20 World Cup Points Table and T20 World Cup Schedule updates.