Afghanistan women’s refugee team to play in Melbourne after three-year fight

Australian cricket has finally answered pleas for a refugee Afghanistan women’s cricket team to play together, organising a game to be held in Melbourne in January, more than three years after the players fled the Taliban.

Dubbed “an Afghanistan women’s XI”, the team will play against a side assembled by the Cricket Without Borders charity at Junction Oval on Thursday January 30, a few hours before day one of the pink ball women’s Ashes Test to be played under lights at the MCG.

Firooza Amiri (left), Friba Hotak and Firooza Afghan are determined to represent their homeland. Credit: Simon Schluter

Prior to the game, the players will get together for a two-day camp in Melbourne to reconnect and train with each other. Some of the players, who fled Afghanistan over a period of months following the Taliban takeover in 2021, have been based in Canberra, making it difficult for the team to unite in one location.

The players spoke in an interview with this masthead last month about their struggles to keep alive the dream of playing together, after losing their chance to play as contracted players for Afghanistan due to the Taliban’s rule.

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