Despite mounting calls in England and South Africa for their men’s teams to boycott Afghanistan matches in the Champions Trophy 2025, it is highly unlikely that the games will be cancelled. This is primarily because neither team would want to forfeit valuable points in a closely contested,

But even Khalida Popal – the former captain of the country’s national football team and one of Afghanistan’s most vocal proponents for change – admits that she’s shocked at the extent that governing bodies such as the International Cricket Council (ICC) and Fifa have been complicit in marginalising women’s sport in the country.

England have been accused of making an “appalling and misogynistic” decision by going ahead with plans to play Afghanistan despite fresh calls for a boycott of next month’s Champions Trophy fixture.

A group of British lawmakers urged England to boycott their Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan next month, saying the country's cricket board (ECB) needed to take a stand against the Taliban's crackdown on women.

England will face Afghanistan in their second group game of the 2025 Champions Trophy, but more than 160 politicians have called for a boycott over the Taliban's outlawing of female sport

England's men's players have the "power" to make their own stand and refuse to play Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy, says Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi.

Richard Gould, the ECB's chief executive, has rejected calls from a group of British politicians for England to boycott their upcoming Champions Trophy clash with Afghanistan in February, saying that the Taliban regime's clampdown on women's rights is a matter that requires a "co-ordinated,

The UK government says the International Cricket Council should "deliver on their own rules" relating to women's participation as the England men's team resist calls to boycott their upcoming match against Afghanistan.

England will not boycott their Champions Trophy game against Afghanistan. The ECB, however, reaffirmed its stand against the Taliban’s actions.

Downing Street asks ICC to ‘deliver on own rules’ over Afghanistan boycott calls - The terms of ICC membership have been directly breached by the abolition of women’s sport in Afghanistan.