Jos Buttler believes next month’s FA Champions Cup match against Afghanistan should go ahead as planned despite calls for a boycott amid the Taliban regime’s assault 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 February 26.
ECB Chief Executive Richard Gould subsequently wrote to the International Cricket Council condemning “gender apartheid” in Afghanistan, where female participation in the sport has been effectively banned since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.
However, Gould rejected the idea of the ECB unilaterally deciding to withdraw from their second group match in the eight-team Champions Cup, calling for collective action from the ICC.
After chatting to England Men’s Cricket Director Rob Key about the hot-button issue, Buttler expressed his thoughts similarly about the ongoing competition against Afghanistan.
“Political situations like that, as a player you try to be as informed as possible,” the England white-ball skipper said ahead of his side’s first T20 match against India in Kolkata on Wednesday.
He added: “The experts know a lot about this, so I’ve been trying to stay in dialogue with Rob Key and the people mentioned above to see how they see it. I don’t think a boycott is the way to do it.”
“Players don’t worry too much about these things. You try to educate yourself and read these things.
“I’ve written some good stuff about it and I’ve benefited from it and I’ve talked to quite a few people to try to gather expert opinions. And these experts lead me in these situations.
“But certainly as a player, you don’t want political positions to affect the sport. Hopefully we can go to the Champions Cup and play that game and have a really good tournament.”
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