New Delhi: From burning their cricket jerseys and other equipment to travelling in small groups and dodging multiple militant groups, including ISIS, 19 contracted Afghanistan women cricketers, their coaches and their families beat all the odds to reach Australian shores in 2021. It was all made possible after former Australian cricketer Mel Jones decided to reach out to the Afghanistan women cricketers and help them with a new lease of life after the Taliban took control of the country and banned women’s cricket.
Taliban imposed a ban on women playing any sport in the country in 2021, leaving the futures of 19 contracted cricketers of the Afghanistan women’s team in disarray. Due to COVID-19, Jones was in quarantine in a hotel in Melbourne when she reached out to Afghanistan cricketer Benafsha Hashimi, who was part of the country’s women’s team and asked if she and her other teammates wanted to leave their country.
Several of the 19 women cricketers who reached the Australian shores in 2021 after fleeing Afghanistan will be in action when they play for Afghanistan XI in an exhibition match against Cricket Without Borders XI at the Junction Oval ahead of the day-night Ashes Test between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).
Ahead of the exhibition match, Jones opened up on how she reached out to Hashmi and set up a ‘backyard immigration office’ at her hotel in Melbourne to rescue the 19 Afghan women cricketers along with their families and their coaches in 2021. “You don’t know who I am. But do you, and any of the players, think that your lives are in threat, and would you like to look at potentially getting out?,” Jones texted Hashmi, as per a report in Fox Cricket.
“Yes we do,” Hashmi replied to Jones. The former Australian cricket then began the rescue operations as she reached out to Cricket Australia and the Australian government officials for help. Jones also set up a ‘backyard immigration office’ in her hotel room to expedite the process. The former cricketer urged the Australian government to provide the Afghanistan women cricketers with humanitarian visas to enter Australian shores.
However, the number soon grew from 19 to 135 as the players were joined by their families and their coaches and support staff. But Jones and the other Australian government and Cricket Australia officials didn’t give up as they did manage to rescue 130 people in the end and managed to get them to Australia from Afghanistan through Pakistan.
“The list got very big, very quickly. The Australian Government said there’s not a chance that this will fly. But in the end, we got 130-plus out,” Jones told Fox Cricket.
Burning cricket jerseys, gear and dodging the ISIS
Jones recalled how the players were told to move to the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in small groups and were asked to burn their cricketing jerseys and equipment to maintain secrecy in the operation. The players and their family members were asked to fabricate stories about visiting Pakistan such as visiting a sick family member in Islamabad during questioning by the border officials.
Some Australian volunteers in Afghanistan and some Aussie government officials in Pakistan helped the cricketers in arriving in Islamabad in small batches but the process took months as the number of people was large. Jons revealed how different militant groups, including ISIS had control of parts of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border and the players and their family members had to dodge them to reach Islamabad.
“That was probably the most stressful part of it. The Taliban had taken over Kabul, but there were a lot of different militant groups that had power over sections all the way along the border as well. ISIS had a section. It was all done under secrecy. We had to do it at different times, all the families couldn’t just leave at once, because it looked too obvious, and then they had to find solid enough stories for when they got to the gate on why they were going to Pakistan. Then it was just drip-feeding them through the border,” said Jones.
Returning to action for the first time since Taliban ban
The operation was successful as nine cricketers arrived in Australia’s capital of Canberra in 2022 followed by the others, who arrived in Melbourne later. All 19 cricketers from the Afghanistan women’s team are still in Australia and some of them will be in action for the Afghanistan XI against Cricket Without Borders XI at the Junction Oval on Thursday.
The Afghanistan women cricketers will be returning to action for the first time since 2021 when the Taliban imposed a ban on women’s cricket in the country. Due to Taliban’s ban on women’s cricket, the Australian men’s team has suspended all bilateral ties with the Afghanistan men’s team. The two teams meet only in ICC competitions.
Opening up on the situation of women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Jones compared it to living in a prison, highlighting how the women can’t pursue education, play sports or get involved in any leisure activities, including poetry or music.
“Horrendous doesn’t cover it. You have nothing to live for. You can’t go to school, no education. There are decrees by the Taliban about not speaking to anyone outside your family. You can’t sing, you can’t read poetry, you can’t do anything. It’s getting worse. It’s a prison,” said Jones.
Former Australian cricketer Mel Jones narrated how she helped 19 contracted Afghanistan women cricketers and their family members flee from Afghanistan after Taliban took control of the country and imposed a ban on women playing cricket in the country. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
