ICC Will Not Cut Funding to Afghanistan Cricket Board

The Afghanistan Cricket Board will not see any of its funding from the International Cricket Council cut or diverted to its exiled women’s cricketers.

An initiative to support the displaced Afghan players was announced by the ICC following its board meeting in Zimbabwe last weekend.

However, cricket’s global governing body will not reduce or siphon off money earmarked for the ACB, even though part of the criteria for full membership of the ICC is to support women’s cricket.

The ICC will support the Afghan women through a separate funding mechanism, while the ACB will continue to receive a payment believed to be in the region of £13 million per year.

All of that funding will go towards men’s cricket in Afghanistan, with women’s sport outlawed in the country since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

The ACB is the only full ICC member not to field a women’s team.

Instead, Afghanistan’s women’s cricketers will be funded by the ICC in conjunction with the England and Wales Cricket Board, Cricket Australia and the Board of Control for Cricket in India.