India v Sri Lanka will open the 2025 Women’s World Cup in Guwahati, yet much of the quiet intrigue sits in the stands. A handful of Afghanistan’s female cricketers, now living and playing club cricket in Australia, are expected to watch from the Assam Cricket Association (ACA) Stadium – one of the ICC’s first practical steps towards re-involving them in the international game.
“[BCCI secretary] Devajit Saikia knows exactly what details about this,” ACA president Taranga Gogoi told ESPNcricinfo. “He will guide us and we are awaiting more details.”
Beyond that line, officials have offered little. No formal role is planned for the players on match day; they arrive as invited spectators rather than representatives of the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB), which still lacks a recognised women’s programme.
The pathway
In April, the ICC confirmed a “dedicated task force” to support Afghanistan’s displaced women. Funding comes from global coffers topped up by the BCCI, ECB and Cricket Australia. Figures were never published, but the intention – coaching, mentorship and match practice – was clear enough.
At the ICC annual conference in July, administrators floated a plan: fly the exiled squad to India for a short camp in Bengaluru, arrange fixtures against state teams, then let the players absorb a few World Cup matches. Rough sketches have since been redrawn. Bengaluru’s opener was shifted to Guwahati, visas took longer than hoped, and publicity has been deliberately muted for fear of political backlash from Kabul. For now, only the opening game is pencilled into the diary, with warm-up fixtures against Indian domestic sides still on the cards.
Context matters
Since the Taliban returned to power in 2021, Afghan women have been pushed from most public spaces. School and university attendance is heavily restricted; organised sport is essentially off-limits. The ACB had contracted 25 female players in 2020, but without domestic competition or government approval the board cannot field a national side.
Most of those players secured humanitarian visas in Australia, while smaller groups settled in the UK and Canada. Several featured in a friendly between an Afghanistan XI and Cricket Without Borders in Melbourne back in January, demonstrating both talent and a lingering sense of limbo.
Balancing optimism and caution
Administrators in India and Dubai hope this trip signals more than tokenism. Quiet diplomacy is preferred – hence the lack of fanfare – but privately ICC officials accept that visible support is overdue. A small gesture, yes, yet it plants a flag: Afghanistan’s women still belong in the game.
For the players, simply walking through the turnstiles in Guwahati will be another reminder of what was lost and what might yet be reclaimed. No one is predicting rapid change, and there is cautious acknowledgement that hard politics outweighs cricketing goodwill. Still, a seat in the crowd is better than none at all, and a net session against an Indian state side carries more merit than endless exile training.
If the scheme sticks, further camps could follow in neutral territories. For now the immediate goal is modest – watch a World Cup fixture, play a few overs, feel part of the sport again. It is not a solution, but it is a start, and the players themselves will decide how much that moment is worth.
