• Australia men team withdrew from ODI series against Afghanistan.
• Cricket Australia cited Taliban crackdown on women’s rights.
• Australia has been committed to growing game for women and men.

SYDNEY: Australia defended its contentious decision to cancel a cricket series with Afghanistan in response to the Taliban’s violation of women’s “basic human rights” on Friday.

“Basic human rights is not politics,” Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said in a statement sent to AFP after Afghanistan’s cricket board lashed the cancellation as “pathetic”.

Following a tour of India, the Australian men’s team was scheduled to play three one-day internationals against their Afghan opponents in the United Arab Emirates in March.

“It is clearly a very challenging and sad situation. We did not take this decision lightly,” Hockley said.

Cricket Australia had been hopeful of playing Afghanistan and was in regular contact with the Afghanistan Cricket Board, he added.

“However announcements by the Taliban in late November and late December signalling the deterioration of basic human rights for women in Afghanistan led to our decision to withdraw from these games,” he said.

Hockley said the Australian cricket authority consulted with the Australian government and others before scrapping the games.

He also responded to Afghanistan’s best-known international cricketer and leg-spinner Rashid Khan, who had criticised the cancellation and warned he would be “strongly considering” his future in Australia’s Big Bash League.

“We acknowledge and applaud Rashid Khan’s and other Afghanistan cricketers’ comments at the time condemning the Taliban’s decision to ban women from universities. Rashid will always be welcome in the BBL,” Hockley said.

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