England captain Buttler needs to be spared Afghanistan boycott resolution
Former England bowler Steve Harmison says any resolution to boycott taking part in Afghanistan should not land with the captain.
England captain Jos Buttler should not be “thrown beneath the bus” amid rising political strain to boycott subsequent month’s Champions Trophy cricket match towards Afghanistan, in response to former English worldwide Steve Harmison.
A gaggle of greater than 160 British politicians have known as on the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to refuse to play Afghanistan in protest on the girls’s sports activities coverage of the Taliban.
Since returning to energy in 2021 the Taliban have banned feminine participation – a transfer that places the Afghanistan Cricket Board at odds with Worldwide Cricket Council (ICC) guidelines.
The ICC, nevertheless, has allowed the Afghanistan males’s workforce to proceed to compete in international competitions, with England on account of face them within the one-day worldwide Champions Trophy in Lahore on February 26.
ECB chief government Richard Gould has resisted requires a boycott, saying he would “actively advocate” for collective motion by the ICC moderately than have England forfeit the sport – a transfer that will doubtless result in a factors deduction.
A spokesman for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in the meantime, has urged the ICC to take the lead on the problem however former England quick bowler Harmison fears the highlight will probably be turned on Buttler.
Harmison was a member of the England squad urged to boycott a recreation towards co-hosts Zimbabwe on the 2003 ODI World Cup in protest on the authorities of Robert Mugabe.
England finally refused to play the sport following demise threats however solely after captain Nasser Hussain led his facet by way of a number of days of anguished talks in Cape City.
There at the moment are reviews the ECB is anxious in regards to the doable safety implications arising from a response to a boycott by Taliban supporters.
“The one factor I’ll say is simply please don’t throw Jos Buttler beneath the bus, like Nasser obtained thrown beneath,” former England quick bowler Harmison, 46, instructed International Participant’s Sports activities Brokers podcast.
“Nasser, he wasn’t simply thrown beneath the bus, he was reversed, backed over. We obtained our lives threatened. Sportsmen and girls shouldn’t be concerned on the political facet.
“Don’t put Jos on this place, he actually doesn’t want that and the England cricket workforce doesn’t want that. If the ICC wish to have a go along with Afghanistan, that’s their combat – it’s not the England captain’s combat.”
South Africa, who’re additionally on account of play Afghanistan on the Champions Trophy, have backed the ECB’s stance.
That is regardless of veteran anti-apartheid campaigner and British politician Peter Hain, who performed a key position in prompting his native South Africa’s sporting isolation throughout the Nineteen Seventies, calling for a boycott.
“We’re of the view {that a} extra unified and collective method from all ICC members will probably be extra impactful,” mentioned Cricket South Africa President Rihan Richards.
