IOC to monitor support for women’s cricket in Afghanistan ahead of LA 2028

Will the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allow the Afghanistan men’s cricket team to participate at the 2028 Los Angeles Games in the absence of a women’s team? IOC president Thomas Bach has said the governing body will continue to “monitor very closely” how much access and support women receive to play sport in the country.

The Afghanistan question was put to Bach on Monday at a media briefing in Mumbai, immediately after IOC members voted in favor of T20 cricket featuring at the LA Games in five years, ESPNCricinfo.com reported.

Afghanistan are the only Full Member country to not have a women’s cricket team, despite it being a key criteria for ICC membership.

Afghanistan gained Full Member status in 2017 on the understanding that the country would create pathways for women to play representative cricket.

An ICC working group, led by deputy chairman Imran Khwaja, has met with officials of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to discuss the situation and recommended to the ICC that instead of penalizing the ACB, dialogue should continue in the hopes of finding a solution.

The IOC has not yet cleared Afghanistan athletes’ participation for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and has warned the country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) it is in danger of suspension if access to sport for females continued to be restricted.

“We have had ongoing conversations and discussions with the Afghan government authorities since that regime change,” James Macleod, IOC head of Olympic Solidarity and National Olympic Committee Relations said on Sunday. “And we’ve been insisting on removing existing barriers from the government that hinder women and young girls from accessing sport opportunities in the country.”

Macleod said the IOC had observed a “tiny change” as Afghanistan female athletes participated in the Asian Games in Hangzhou (China) recently. “There has been some progress, a tiny bit of progress. We witnessed that in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where the Afghan delegation consisted of 83 athletes, of which 17 were females in three different sports. This also included having a joint male and female flag bearer.”