The Australia opener acknowledged the complex issues involved but said CA's stance was 'a bit hypocritical'
ESPNcricinfo staff
Usman Khawaja has said he believes Australia should play bilateral cricket with Afghanistan although he is sympathetic to the issue of women's human rights due to the Taliban rule.
Cricket Australia has withdrawn from playing Afghanistan twice – a Test match scheduled to be played in Australia and a T20 series overseas – citing a “significant decline in the human rights of women and girls” as the reason, but continues to face them in ICC competitions.
Rashid Khan, again commenting on the situation after Afghanistan's famous win over Australia in the T20 World Cup, said that he cannot understand why World Cup competitions can happen but not bilateral cricket.
“I personally believe we should play with Afghanistan,” Khwaja said. Nine Newspapers “I'm sympathetic to both sides of the puzzle. I totally respect and agree with Cricket Australia's stance on women's cricket in Afghanistan, but there's also another side to it, promoting and growing the game,” he said at an Amazon Prime event in Melbourne.
“This is the second time Australia has pulled out of a bilateral series, and I spoke to Rashid Khan. He was really disappointed, especially because people in Afghanistan love cricket, and for them cricket is one of the few things that they enjoy and that brings them joy, and the fact that they were going to play Australia was going to be huge, and they're not getting to see that now. So it really makes people sad, and people are upset with the government.”
Khawaja also spoke about Afghanistan players participating in the BBL, with Rashid becoming a star for the Adelaide Strikers in the last few years. Rashid had threatened to withdraw from the competition last year over CA's stance but later made himself available before suffering an injury.
“If we say we won’t play with Afghanistan but then allow Afghan cricketers to play in the BBL, it’s a bit hypocritical,” Khawaja said. “They should 100 per cent do that. [play]But then how can you do one thing and not the other?”
Speaking after Afghanistan's win in St Vincent, Rashid said: “Some things in cricket are not in anybody's control, and we can't do anything about it. I wish we could do something, and I wish there was a solution to it, we would be happy, but I don't know what the solution is.”