Students in Focus
Against all odds: The Afghan women's cricket team
In August 2021, the world watched in horror as the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan.
Dr Catherine Ordway, Associate Professor and Sport Integrity Research Lead at the Â鶹´«Ã½, reached out to ABC sports journalist, and now UC Professorial Fellow Tracey Holmes, who had just broken the story on the , asking how she could help.
“Tracey told me: The Olympic movement is helping the Olympians, FIFA and others are helping the footballers – but nobody's helping the cricket team,” Catherine says.
“The Taliban had the team members’ names, photos, addresses and phone numbers. It was very clear that the Taliban were going to go after them, so those women were in enormous danger.”
By this time, airports across the country were closed, meaning the cricket team would need to be evacuated across the border by road, family by family.
“I was adamant that we were going to bring entire families, in as far as that was possible,” Catherine says.
Catherine and her collaborators worked late into the night, night after night for months, communicating via WhatsApp to arrange Emergency Humanitarian Visas and letters of support from the Australian government for each refugee. It was tedious work, marred by legal and administrative hurdles, and conducted with haste and secrecy.
Eventually, the Afghan women’s cricket team were safely settled in Australia – half in Canberra and the other half in Melbourne. In total, Catherine helped evacuate more than 130 people: the cricketers, the staff and their families.
The team members were now safe, but their lives were forever changed. They began picking up the pieces and adapting to the new country, language and culture, but there was still one major piece missing – the team wanted to play cricket.
Catherine connected with Cricket ACT, and asked CEO, and UC alumna, Olivia Thornton, whether the players could be placed into local clubs.
“Olivia was amazing, she said YES right away! She had military-like precision, working out how players from different clubs were going to pick up the girls, who were living in various suburbs, and drop them at a game here or to fill in there until they settled into life in Canberra,” Catherine says.
“The Afghan women are so exceptional. Despite everything, they wanted nothing more than to have the opportunity to play, to have that feeling of hitting the ball cleanly and watching it go flying for six. It just makes their heart full, it’s part of them, and they just love it.”
Tooba Khan is one of those athletes. She’s now immersed in cricket nearly every day – she plays for Eastlake Cricket Club and coaches at Canberra Grammar School and at holiday programs through . She’s also studying a Bachelor of Business (Human Resource Management) at UC.
Her dream had been to play cricket at an international level – and for a long time, it seemed like it might never happen.
Tooba grew up in Herat Province in Western Afghanistan and played cricket at school. In 2020, she received an invitation to attend a cricket camp in the capital city, Kabul. She didn’t know it at the time, but this camp would serve as the selections for the country’s first national women’s cricket team.
At the end of the 18-day camp, the coaches informed her that she had been selected for the national team.
“I was so excited to be one of the members. It’s what all the players want. It doesn’t matter what sport – basketball, football or cricket – it’s a dream of the player to play under their country’s flag, and represent their country,” Tooba says.
“For many years that dream didn’t come true.”
In August 2021, the Taliban took Herat Province.
“The situation was awful. We could hear the gunfire and the fighting every night. My mum told me they would take Afghanistan, but I had hope,” Tooba says.
Days later, the Taliban took Kabul. At this point, the women’s cricket team knew their lives were in danger.
That was a sad moment for everyone. We burned our cricket equipment; we burned our papers.
Thanks to their supporters in Australia, the cricket team were able to escape across the border into Pakistan, where they were picked up by the Australian government. Tooba came with her younger brother, and a small carry-on bag to go on the military planes.
Tooba’s brother lives with her in Canberra, the rest of her family, her parents and other siblings, stayed in Afghanistan.
The cricket team, Catherine and their base of loyal collaborators continue to advocate to the highest power in cricket, the International Cricket Council (ICC), . Multi-million-dollar funding to develop cricket for both men and women still flows from the ICC to the Afghan Cricket Board, despite their women’s team living as refugees in Australia.
“We don’t want anything extra from the ICC. We want the same rights that they provide to other men’s and women’s teams across the world,” Tooba says.
“We want our own team, the Afghan female team. We are not going to give up. Even if we never get to play for our country, under our flag, we hope our work can make it happen one day for future generation.”
On 30 January, the team are playing their first T20 match together in Melbourne. The first day of the England vs Australia test match (Ashes) follows in the evening and the Afghan women will have the chance to watch at the MCG.
“I feel super excited for this game, it’s finally happening after so many years. It is a dream come true for us. Going in the field together with the teammates for the first time,” Tooba says.
The reason we have this game is because of these strong, incredible ladies: Catherine, Olivia, Emma Staples and Mel Jones.
Tooba has a law degree from Afghanistan, which was awarded after arriving in Australia. It was her goal and mission in life to educate Afghan women on their rights, and help them fight for their voices to be heard.
“Being a lawyer was my childhood dream – through 12 years of school and four years of university I knew that’s what I wanted to do,” Tooba says.
Although she had envisioned taking up the challenge through law, it turns out that Tooba’s greatest opportunity to make Afghan women’s voices heard is through sport, as one of the country’s few remaining elite female athletes.
“The women in Afghanistan don’t have basic rights, no access to education, no reading or writing. They are not allowed to truly live,” Tooba says.
“But we can raise our voices for them, and make sure they’re heard across the world. We can send them a powerful message to never give up.”
Story by Kelly White, photos by Tyler Cherry and supplied.