Rashid Khan Bats For Cricket’s Indifference

In the game of great disparity, a lonely voice is making an urgent appeal: for the cricket world to take cognisance of how a budding Afghanistan cricket team is being made to pay the price not so much for Afghanistan’s political situation, as much as a powerful cricket board’s vested interests. It is a malice that cricket continues to breed like mold under the basement of the sport’s epicentre.

Cricket Australia (CA) is being publicly defaced in a manner of speaking by one of its imports. Rashid Khan, who is expected to play for the Adelaide Strikers in Australia’s Big Bash League (CA’s version of the IPL), is batting for his cricket with a strange threat.

Threatening that he might not participate though picked for next summer’s BBL, Rashid Khan brought spotlight to recent developments on the part of CA when for a third time since the pandemic, Australia has chosen to disregard its commitments to the cause of the Afghanistan men’s cricket team by keeping its bilateral commitments.

Citing the poor plight of women and children under a Taliban controlled regime in Afghanistan, Cricket Australia, under the guise of commitment to the cause, decided to announce its postponement of the three Twenty20 international matches scheduled for August against the embryonic, underprivileged team.

It is true that Afghanistan cricket remains the only full ICC member without a women’s team to represent them and that since the takeover of the Taliban regime of the nation in 2021, several women athletes, not just cricketers, have gone into hiding.

In a statement released recently, Cricket Australia reiterated its commitment to the cause of women and children saying, “Conditions for women and children in Afghanistan are getting worse. For this reason, we have maintained our previous position and will postpone the bilateral series.”

But here is where it gets tricky. Why then does Cricket Australia want players like Rashid Khan drafted into their Twenty20 commercial ventures when they should be a blanket ban?

Does not the BCCI do that with the Pakistan cricket team and not include Pakistan players in the IPL auctions? Why not follow a similar path to present a picture of cohesive thought?

Aren’t Cricket Australia being blatant, if Rashid Khan is being accused of being two faced for playing in the Big Bash League and also, criticising Cricket Australia, when it is obvious they don’t need Afghanistan cricket in terms of commercial viability but that they need as much as star power as possible to resurrect their stuttering Big Bash League, which has fallen way behind the IPL-like ambitions?

Rashid Khan’s credentials speak for themselves as they speak to Cricket Australia’s vested commercial interest. It is also something he is calling out on, addressing the fact that he feels he is letting his teammates down when he is picked but not the team as a whole.

Khan is the leading Twenty20 international player of the decade. More importantly, from Australia’s perspective, Rashid Khan is the Adelaide Strikers’ chief wicket taker as the spinner boasts of 98 wickets with a strike rate of 17.51 from 69 matches which in itself is making BBL history.

This makes the 25 year old not only valuable to the Adelaide team but also, to the success of the Big Bash League and in turn, Cricket Australia, not to mention the fact that his knowledge is invaluable and information exchange priceless.

Under normal circumstances, Cricket Australia’s stance would have been admirable, even praised for its noble intentions. But when one looks under the surface, the pattern is all too obvious and this is perhaps what has peeved the Afghanistan all rounder the most.

Some would still argue that Rashid Khan plays for money. While that is stating the obvious, none can blame the Afghanistan players for grabbing opportunities where they present themselves, including the Indian Premier League.

It is what makes it so interesting that while the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) could certainly make a passionate appeal, if not virtually compel, its fellow big league player to play fair, they will claim non-interference in matters but while still being acknowledged as the richest board with Indian cricket generating seventy percent of the revenue. Shouldn’t global responsibility then not be a natural by-product of it?

After all, Cricket Australia could be called a repeat offender for ignoring Afghanistan’s cricket interests repeatedly and there have been more overtly commercial interests dictating their decisions than any largesse of the heart.

In the pandemic era, Cricket Australia cared two hoots for their reputation, claiming the infeasibility of hosting the ICC Twenty20 World Cup but in the same breadth, making noise about adding a fifth Test to India’s tour later in the year a la the Ashes, showing Australia wanted their hand squarely in the cookie jar where they would not have to share their find.

Here is where Cricket Australia gets into trouble. It is not just one format but a collective ignorance of a full member nation of the International Cricket Council (ICC) that the cricket world is witnessing.

Australia did not play the one off Test against Afghanistan in 2021 and also, the three one day international series scheduled for 2023 though both were on the itinerary. While they have played Afghanistan in the World Cup tournament, it becomes a little more obvious with everything else going on in the world they are showing selective bias.

Khan emphasised the need for improving their team’s prospects and competitive edge by playing against the top tier teams. But with the refusal to honour bilateral commitments, he, like many around the cricket world who support the spunk of this Afghanistan team, feel his team is being shortchanged and undermined.

From 2017, when Afghanistan cricketers started being allowed into the IPL there are now at least five players choosing to not only fill pockets but keep the banner of Afghanistan cricket flying high. Apart from Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai and Noor Ahmed represent the Gujarat Titans while Rahmanullah GUrbaz makes up the Kolkata Knight Riders squad and Mohammad Nabi in the Mumbai Indian squad.

That the cricket’s leading world governing body itself must wake up and either take a definitive collective stand one way or the other or call those out who chose to dishonour. Unfortunately even the penalty of forfeiture is not likely to dent the top teams’ prospects of making it to the premier world championship and world cup prospects, which is what makes enforcing the punitive measures that much more complicated as also, ineffective.

Else, it is disenfranchising the sport as a whole and Rashid Khan needs to be commended for using the IPL as a platform to remind the world of this discrepancy.