The State Department issued a $450,000 grant to support women’s cricket in Afghanistan even as the Islamic nation was pulling its own support for the sport. It now apparently has no women’s cricket league at all.
“It does not exist,” Nasimullah Danish, the newly appointed chairman of Afghanistan’s cricket board, told Reuters on Wednesday. He cited pressure from Islamic groups who object to women playing the sport. “The situation is not very much prepared for developing women’s cricket in Afghanistan.”
That raises a question of what will happen to the State Department’s grant issued June 3 through the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. It is not clear whether any money was issued through it or, if there was, whether any of the funds can be recovered. The State Department’s press office did not respond to a request for comment.
The federal government’s official announcement solicited proposals “for the development, coordination and implementation of a regional sports leadership exchange for female cricket players from Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.”
The grant, which had a maximum allocation of $450,000 and a minimum of $300,000, would be used to host about 15 players and coaches, staff, and chaperones “as necessary” for a “one week-long leadership and cricket skill-building exchange programs in each of the three countries.”
The grant was intended as a cultural exchange effort among the three nations. Afghanistan created a women’s league in 2010, but the effort was unraveling even before the grant was announced. Diana Barakzai, founder of the national women’s team, resigned in April.
“Afghanistan’s cricket board does not support cricket for women, even though I have 3,700 girl cricketers across Afghanistan,” Barakzai told Reuters. “I hope their attitude will change.”
Cricket, a sport imported to the region during the British colonial days, is extremely popular in Southeast Asia. Fundamentalist Islamic groups nevertheless object to women playing it on the grounds that playing it allows them to be unescorted in public.
