Rahul Tiwari
khelja|23-06-2024
By defeating Australia in the T20 World Cup 2024, Afghanistan has not only created history but has also avenged its humiliation. Actually, Afghanistan was repeatedly persuading Australia for a bilateral series. But, whenever the Afghanistan Cricket Board moved forward with the proposal, Cricket Australia used to postpone it. The reason for this attitude of Cricket Australia with Afghanistan cricket is also the same every time, its Talibani cry. So far, Australia has refused to play cricket series with Afghanistan thrice citing Taliban and its ban on sports.
In such a situation, when both the teams faced each other on the neutral platform of ICC, leaving aside the issue of bilateral series, Afghanistan's victory is also being seen as a revenge against Australia. With this victory, Afghanistan has tried to tell Australia that it is not so weak that it cannot play a series with it.
Let us first tell you when Australia has rejected the proposal to play a bilateral series or match with Afghanistan? This has happened 3 times so far. For the first time in the year 2021, Australia did this by cancelling the only Test match to be held with Afghanistan in Hobart. After this, for the second time, Australia refused to play a 3-match ODI series with Afghanistan in UAE in March 2023. And now Cricket Australia has also postponed the T20 series to be held in August 2024 with Afghanistan.
The only reason behind all the decisions of Cricket Australia to cancel the series with Afghanistan was the Taliban regime, which is also revealed by the statement issued by it. In fact, the Taliban has banned the participation of women in sports. Whereas, Cricket Australia says that they are in favor of promoting it. Postponing the T20 series with Afghanistan in August 2024, Australia said that it would consider working with the Afghanistan Cricket Board on this in the future.
Even if Australia does not play a bilateral series with Afghanistan, they will have to play in ICC tournaments. And, when the two teams faced each other in the ICC T20 World Cup 2024, Afghanistan showed that it is not easy to defeat them. They are not such a weak team that a series with them can be taken lightly. Afghanistan must have tried to teach this lesson to Australia with their victory, now it remains to be seen how much impact it would have had on the Australian team? Will they reconsider their decision to play a bilateral series with Afghanistan in the future?