{"id":245284,"date":"2026-05-26T07:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/we-want-to-play-like-other-teams-afghan-womens-cricket-dreams-remain-undimmed\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:00:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:00:48","slug":"we-want-to-play-like-other-teams-afghan-womens-cricket-dreams-remain-undimmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/26\/we-want-to-play-like-other-teams-afghan-womens-cricket-dreams-remain-undimmed\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018We want to play like other teams\u2019: Afghan women\u2019s cricket dreams remain undimmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

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B<\/span>enafsha Hashimi\u2019s calling is cricket. She was contracted by the Afghanistan<\/a> Cricket Board when a women\u2019s national side was in development, just before the return of the Taliban in 2021. She subsequently fled as an 18-year-old to Australia where most of her teammates also went, forming a team in exile. Hashimi was part of the Afghan Women XI that played their first game last year in Melbourne. While the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan continue to disappear, Hashimi and her teammates have defied the regime from abroad.<\/p>\n

The exiled cricketers were joyous last month, celebrating the transformative news for another set of Afghan athletes. At a council meeting in Canada, Fifa approved the return of the Afghanistan women\u2019s football team<\/a> to international competition. \u201cFinally, one of the girls\u2019 teams did it because both of us, football and cricket, have been fighting since we came to Australia,\u201d says Hashimi.<\/p>\n

Like the cricketers, the footballers fled as the Taliban returned to power, with those in exile forming a refugee team last year. But full recognition was still lacking, the side playing under another title, Afghan Women United. What they needed was the amendment to Fifa\u2019s governance regulations that finally took place in April: the displaced players no longer need the approval of the Afghanistan Football Federation. Like any other national side, they can plot routes to the World Cup and more. \u201cFor the last few years, we have played under many names as refugees \u2013 as \u2018Afghan Women United\u2019, and as guests of other clubs,\u201d said the midfielder Nazia Ali. \u201cBut in our hearts, we were always the national team.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Benafsha Hashimi.<\/span> Photograph: Cricket Without Borders<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hashimi awoke to the news with joy and wonder: what now for her team? They continue to wait for full recognition, for the International Cricket<\/a> Council to follow the precedent set by Fifa. \u201cWe were so happy [for the footballers], and then later on we made some [social media] videos to congratulate them and tell the ICC that Fifa and ICC, they both are the same as each other. When [Fifa] can do it, when they\u2019re able to recognise a team, why can\u2019t the ICC do that? We want to be recognised, we want to get our rights, we want to play like other teams do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Afghan players have long expressed frustration with the ICC\u2019s inaction and lack of engagement; meanwhile, the Afghanistan Cricket Board retains full membership despite not operating a women\u2019s team. There was some support last April when the ICC launched a dedicated fund for the players, granting them \u201cadvanced coaching, access to world-class facilities and personalised mentorship\u201d, with assistance provided by the boards of England, India and Australia. This led to a trip to India during the Women\u2019s World Cup last year, where the Afghan side played friendlies, received coaching and watched the opening game between the eventual champions and Sri Lanka in Guwahati.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching your idols, it\u2019s something different, you will be speechless or wordless,\u201d Hashimi says of the experience, still awestruck from meeting Harmanpreet Kaur and Jemimah Rodrigues. \u201cWe were over the moon. I was like: \u2018Oh my goodness, what\u2019s happening,\u2019 because usually we see them on TV or maybe sometimes in the stadium and they\u2019re playing. But we didn\u2019t imagine that we\u2019re going to see them in real life.\u201d The players will travel to England this summer for another tour and attend the Women\u2019s T20 World Cup final at Lord\u2019s. In the ECB\u2019s statement announcing the visit, they were referred as both the \u2018Afghanistan Refugee Women\u2019s Team\u2019 and \u2018Afghan Refugee Women\u2019s Team\u2019.<\/p>\n

Yet while Hashimi and her teammates continue to train she expresses uncertainty over the future of their ICC support. \u201cWe are practising [more] consistently than before. But there is no idea what we will do when it finishes. After August I don\u2019t think we have anything, we don\u2019t have any answer yet on what we will do. Whenever we have had a meeting or asked them what\u2019s the next step, they always say they have no idea.\u201d The ICC has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/svg><\/span>Afghanistan Women\u2019s XI players pose for a team photo during the cricket match between Afghanistan Women\u2019s XI and Cricket Without Borders XI at Junction Oval in Melbourne<\/span> Photograph: Martin Keep\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

She explains just what official recognition would mean to her. \u201cIt would be really great, honestly. I will achieve what I was fighting for since I was back home. Because Afghan girls who started playing, they weren\u2019t just fighting against the ICC or the cricket board. You know, it took me nine, 10 years to get permission to play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhenever I was asking my mother, she was telling me: \u2018Women just do home work, washing dishes, making babies, and taking care of babies. That\u2019s it. Even if I let you study, that\u2019s a big thing.\u2019 I was really hopeless at that time. And then after that fight finished, we went to the cricket board and got our contracts.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhen I signed it, I still couldn\u2019t believe it, that I got a contract. My sister said: \u2018You have been staring at this contract all day. What\u2019s going on with you?\u2019 I couldn\u2019t believe it, honestly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the Taliban came in.\u201d Hashimi offers a pained laugh. \u201cLook how unlucky I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hashimi is working on her game, figuring out her own place within it. She\u2019s a batter who bowled leg-spin before switching to pace, but her attention has turned to keeping wicket. She looks up to Nat Sciver-Brunt and Alyssa Healy among others, and wants to study sports management, science and psychology. Yet her focus at the moment is singular: \u201cI want to be a cricketer.\u201d Her dreams rest on the game\u2019s powerbrokers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Benafsha Hashimi\u2019s calling is cricket. She was contracted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board when a women\u2019s national side was in development, just before the return of the Taliban in 2021. She subsequently fled as an 18-year-old to Australia where most of her teammates also went, forming a team in exile. Hashimi was part of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":245285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6803],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-245284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cricket"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}