England and SA share the same group with Afghanistan in the One Day International competition and are under pressure to boycott the fixtures in response to the Taliban government\u2019s crackdown on women’s rights since returning to power in August 2021.<\/p>\n
SA are scheduled to open their Champions Trophy schedule against Afghanistan in Karachi on February 21 but McKenzie urged his country\u2019s cricket governing body not to honour the fixture.<\/p>\n
\u201cCricket SA, the federations of other countries and the ICC (International Cricket Council) will have to think carefully about the message the sport of cricket wishes to send the world, and especially the women in sports,\u201d he said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not for me as the Sports Minister to make the final decision on whether SA should honour cricketing fixtures against Afghanistan. If it was my decision, then it certainly would not happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a man who comes from a race that was not allowed equal access to sporting opportunities during Apartheid, it would be hypocritical and immoral to look the other way today when the same is being done towards women anywhere in the world,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
More than 160 British politicians have signed a cross-party letter to the England and Wales Cricket Board, calling for a boycott of England\u2019s fixture against Afghanistan in Lahore on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n
England and Wales Cricket Board Chief Executive Richard Gould responded by calling for a uniform approach from all member nations towards Afghanistan’s participation in international cricket.<\/p>\n
There has been no comment from Cricket SA, who were approached for a response.<\/p>\n
Australia are the other country scheduled to take on Afghanistan, in Lahore on February 28.<\/p>\n
Cricket Australia indefinitely postponed a bilateral men\u2019s Twenty 20 series against Afghanistan last March citing \u201cdeteriorating human rights for women and girls in the country under Taliban rule\u201d.<\/p>\n
But they did play them at the World Cup in India in late 2023 and at the T20 World Cup last June.<\/p>\n
Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird last month said he was \u201cvery proud of the position we\u2019ve taken\u201d after they were accused of hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve taken a position, and we\u2019re proudly standing up where we think we should,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":12155,"template":"default||default||default||default||default||default||default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-12154","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.","published_date":null,"news_description":"South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.||South Africa (SA) Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie said he supported calls for a boycott of Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy in Pakistan, adding his voice to those of British politicians who have called on England not to play them next month.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17905,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/12154\/revisions\/17905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=12154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}