Everyone likes to see everyone play: AFG skipper Shahidi on women's cricket

Afghanistan men's cricket team captain Hashmatullah Shahidi made it clear on Tuesday that women in his country should be allowed to play the game though he said it was beyond his control in a nation governed by strict religious laws.

The Taliban took over the reins of Afghanistan in 2021 and banned women's sports, including cricket.

"Yeah, everyone likes to see everyone play," Shahid told the media here when asked if the exiled Afghanistan women's team should be allowed to play the game.

"As I said before, when it comes to politics and those things which we cannot control - we are only cricket players we can control things in the ground and we belong to the ground and we are always trying to give our best when we play."  Several Afghan women's team cricketers shifted base to Australia following the turmoil in their country.

A group of British lawmakers have also reportedly urged the England cricket team to boycott the Champions Trophy fixture against Afghanistan. Asked if such a call can affect the team's performance, Shahidi said his team always likes to "play hard".

"We are cricket players, we are sportspersons, we are sportsmen. So, we control what we can do inside the ground. So, we don't worry about what's happening out of the ground. And that cannot do anything to our confidence.

"We play hard, we work hard, we have good net sessions. So that's what we're thinking of and we only can do what we can do in the ground," said the left-handed batter.

Afghanistan had sent ripples in the cricketing world by upsetting Jos Buttler's England by 69 runs in the 2023 Cricket World Cup in India  and Shahidi expressed confidence going into the match on Wednesday despite an opening loss to South Africa by 107 runs.

"In 2023 we had a good game against England and we beat them. We have that confidence with us but that's part of history and now we have to go to ground with the new mindset and with the new planning.

"We all know that England is one of the best teams so it's a tough challenge for us but we are ready for any kind of challenge and we worked hard to achieve - to reach to this level and we are ready to play every game in a positive way.

Despite the big loss, Shahidi said he had full faith in his batters to take the team towards the business end of the tournament.

"I believe that we did really well in the recent past as a batting unit, but in the last South Africa game, the way we expect as a team from our batting lineup, we didn't play that way.

"I believe that still we have a good batting unit and we have quality players. We have two more games, and we have a big chance to win those games.