England-Afghanistan boycott calls: MP says players have ‘power’ to refuse to play Champions Trophy match

England’s males’s gamers have the “energy” to make their very own stand and refuse to play Afghanistan within the Champions Trophy, in accordance with Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) met with Antoniazzi on Tuesday after she despatched a cross-party letter to the governing physique, signed by practically 200 UK politicians, which known as on the ECB to boycott the fixture.

These UK politicians need the group to refuse to play the 50-over match in Lahore on 26 February and take a stand in opposition to the Taliban regime’s assault on ladies’s rights.

Ladies’s participation in sport has successfully been outlawed because the Taliban’s return to energy in 2021, and lots of of Afghanistan’s feminine gamers left the nation for their very own security.

Within the wake of her assembly with the ECB, the place the governing physique maintained its non-committal place on a boycott, Antoniazzi informed PJ Sport that England’s gamers can select to make their very own stand on the difficulty.

“The facility lies within the group. The facility lies within the those who play the game. The facility lies with them – it is of their arms,” the MP for Gower stated.

“How huge is England cricket? It is big. They’ve an enormous standing on the earth of sport and so they do have an affect, and I need them to grasp that that affect is what they need to use to make a distinction.”

The Skilled Cricketers’ Affiliation (PCA) declined to touch upon the prospect of particular person England gamers probably boycotting the fixture, however informed PJ Sport it’s “a particularly advanced concern”.

A spokesperson stated: “The PCA is appalled on the abhorrent remedy of the ladies and women beneath the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

“The PCA continues to have interaction with the ECB and the World Cricketers’ Affiliation on the matter.”

Because the matter pertains to particular person participant views the ECB didn’t really feel it was acceptable to remark.