Almost County News 2025: Dan Christian

 

Dan Christian made available in the BBL

England should stand up to the Taliban's gender apartheid.
Janice Turner.
London Times.
Saturday, 4 January 2025.
PTG 4726-22687.

Are the Taliban running a contest for the most extreme restriction on Afghan women? They’ve already banned them from school, college, beauty salons, stadiums (unless being stoned or whipped), gyms and parks; they can no longer train as nurses or be treated by male medics (thus denying them all healthcare); they can’t play sport, drive, dance, sing, travel alone or work. Their faces are banned from view, their voices from being heard, even in prayer.

Now a new Taliban edict has banned windows through which women might be glimpsed in their kitchens. So not only are they locked away, they can’t even look outside. What can be next: cutting out the tongues of baby girls?  Yet on February 26, the England cricket team will play Afghanistan (PTG 4725-22682, 4 January 2025). How in all conscience can this game go ahead? Afghanistan already breaches International Cricket Council rules that require nations to support and fund women’s cricket. (Disbanding the women’s team was the Taliban’s first act).

Moreover, Afghanistan practices apartheid. When South Africa did so along racial lines, it rightly suffered sporting boycotts. Gender apartheid is an equivalent evil and cricket — which the Taliban love, often posing with star players in the Gulf — is a rare way to sanction its monstrous regime. So why no boycott?  Shame on any Englishman who plays ball with apartheid next month.

England will not boycott Afghanistan match in Champions Trophy.
Elizabeth Ammon.
London Times.
Friday, 3 January 2024,
PTG 4725-22682.


England will not boycott their match against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy next month but the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has reiterated its stance that it will not schedule any bilateral series against the Afghanistan men’s team because of the Taliban government’s stance on women playing sport. Afghanistan are the only Test-playing nation that do not have a women’s team for, among a raft of restrictions placed on Afghanistan women by the Taliban government, they are prevented from taking part in any sport.

Last month Greg Barclay, the outgoing chai of the International Cricket Council (ICC), said that Australia and England had merely done the expedient thing by announcing they would not play bilateral games against Afghanistan after the 2021 Taliban takeover of the country and a ban on women in sport, and that “if you really want to make a political statement, don’t play them in a World Cup” (PTG 4696-22569, 5 December 2024). Cricket Australia (CA) chair Mike Baird rejected such accusations of hypocrisy (PTG 4697-22573, 6 December 2024).

Before 2021, when the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan, a women’s team had been in existence since 2010. In 2020, 25 female cricketers were handed paid contracts by the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), but after the Taliban returned to power, women were banned from universities, parks and sports, and the homes of female athletes were raided, ending any hopes of the Afghanistan women’s team playing their first ever international fixture.

Most of the members of the Afghanistan women’s team fled the country — many ending up in Australia — but the team was unable to reform. The former players wrote to the ICC last year to ask for help to create a team of Afghan refugees and give them coaching and administration support, although that has not yet been forthcoming from the international governing body (PTG 4548-21965, 2 July 2024).

The Afghanistan men’s team, who are coached by the former England batsman Jonathan Trott, do not play or train in their home country. They are instead based in Dubai, which is also where the majority of their home matches take place.

England have previous experience of an international tournament being affected by political issues. At the 2003 World Cup, hosted jointly by South Africa, Kenya and Zimbabwe, England refused to face Zimbabwe in their opening pool match in Harare, citing concerns over having to shake hands with president Robert Mugabe before the match and having also received death threats in the months leading up to the tournament.

The ICC refused England’s claims that these were valid reasons to pull out, the game did not take place and Zimbabwe were awarded the four match points — which ultimately helped the joint hosts advance to the Super Sixes stage at the expense of England.

In 2023, Australia withdrew from a men’s one-day series against Afghanistan citing the Taliban’s decision to impose further restrictions on women’s and girls’ education, to which the ACB reacted strongly, describing the decision as “unfair” and “pathetic”. Australia also called off a planned T20 series against Afghanistan in early 2024 and have committed to not playing any bilateral cricket against them. However, they did play against them in last year’s T20 World Cup because international tournaments are run by the ICC, whereas bilateral series are organised by the individual cricket boards.

The ECB have followed Australia’s stance and do not have any future bilateral series arranged against Afghanistan. They last played against them in the group stage of the 2023 World Cup in India, losing by 69 runs.

“We have been working on discussions at ICC level with other member countries to understand what action will be taken” Richard Gould, the ECB chief executive, said last year. “The ICC’s view is that they are not able to have an impact on a domestic government’s policy. I don’t think that there is an appetite for action amongst the majority of ICC members directly against Afghanistan”.

Our predictions for cricket in 2025: England to win Ashes and Dillon Pennington’s Test breakthrough

Pace can tip balance in touring side’s favour next winter and Notts seamer possesses all the weapons to enrich an already potent attack

Scyld Berry Chief Cricket Writer. 

It promises to be a fascinating year for the Bazball project – here is what I expect from Brendon McCullum’s side, plus my thoughts on how the County Championship will pan out.

Breakthrough player: Dillon Pennington

Assuming Jacob Bethell has already broken through into England teams – and will hopefully major as a top-three Test batsman – what England need most is a new-ball Test bowler to partner Gus Atkinson (Brydon Carse being a third seamer, and Ben Stokes in future a fifth seamer if one at all). No doubt Chris Woakes can swing the ball on home pitches for a few more Tests, but what England need in the next Ashes is a new-ball bowler who can also swing the ball but at a slightly quicker pace, with a more threatening mien than good old Woakesy, and bowl heavy-duty spells with an old one.Dillon Pennington fits this bill: aged 25, now at Nottinghamshire where he made a technical change in the timing of his arm swing, which has increased his pace since leaving Worcestershire. He was selected for England’s squad last summer against West Indies, but the bright idea was to play Mark Wood in back-to-back Tests instead (whereupon Wood broke down). Instead of making his Test debut, Pennington was deployed to the Hundred, where he sustained a hamstring problem in delivering a five-ball set, and has only just started bowling again.

Most important player: Jamie Smith

England’s ever-growing tendency to bat like headless chickens, or gung-ho village clubbies on tour after an all-night lock-in, has to be arrested: and to give England’s middle order the chance to be audacious, they need a platform less flimsy than the one they are being given by England’s top three. Enter, please, Jamie Smith.

As he proved last summer, when keeping wicket down the order, Smith can defend and build an innings – before hitting as hard and far as anyone else. Excellent temperament for a No 3, and more composed than Ollie Pope, Smith is the man most qualified for this job – on condition that he gives up wicketkeeping and passes the role on to Pope if needs be, whose keeping is at the same level as Smith’s. Meanwhile, Bethell, the current incumbent at three, will have to compete for a place with openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley.

I am most looking forward to... some England resilience

England’s brittleness has reached the point where they have been dismissed in fewer than 40 overs four times in their last seven Tests. David Gower, restraint personified, was moved to describe England’s last innings in New Zealand as “ignominious” – and that was one of their better collapses in lasting all of 47.2 overs.

The management and players may shrug it off – but the old adage of doing what your opponent least wants still applies, and when England throw their wickets away they are doing exactly what their current opponents want and future opponents want to see. If England take a lead in the next Ashes, Australia can take heart that another lemming rush is just around the corner. The personnel has to change for this approach to improve, starting with Smith as above, and casting Bethell in the right slot: as opener or down the order, bowling spin instead of Shoaib Bashir.

County Championship winner? Surrey

It does not yet look to be the time when Surrey will do a Manchester City and fall from grace. Resources, resources and more resources: this is what sets them apart from all other counties. As if their pace-bowling stocks are not sufficiently ample, they have brought in Matthew Fisher from Yorkshire and Nathan Smith from New Zealand via Worcestershire. Hampshire and Somerset beat them on turners last season, and Surrey are unlikely to fly in Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh again for a one-off game, not after he has been suspended from bowling.

Ashes winner? England

I am going for a 3-2 scoreline, but it could just as easily be Australia who edge it. My belief/hope is based on McCullum’s side having deeper pace-bowling resources than Australia, who have relied on their “big three” of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood for almost a decade.