Geoff Aldrice, the ICC chief, said that it was difficult for the Afghanistan cricket board to develop women's cricket in the country and unless there is some change to the situation, the status quo will remain. "I think at the moment, the Afghanistan Cricket Board who is our member is unable to fill the team," Aldrice told the media in Dhaka on Sunday during an event for the forthcoming ICC T20 World Cup. "Until something changes, that will remain the situation. It isn't that the Afghanistan Cricket Board wasn't developing women's cricket previously, it is just that they are not able to at the moment. Afghanistan are currently the only full member nation without a women's team and as a result Afghanistan Cricket Board could not send their women's team in the upcoming ICC Women's T20 World Cup. The teams are divided into two groups of five each with Group A including Australia, India, New Zealand, Pakistan and Qualifier 1 while Group B has South Africa, England, West Indies, Bangladesh and Qualifier 2. In March 2024, Cricket Australia, which had already cancelled the historic one-off Test against Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover and withdrawn from the ODI series last year, postponed their scheduled T20I series against Afghanistan citing no improvements in Taliban's stance on women. The three-match series was scheduled to be held in August 2024 in the UAE. Aldrice added that the ICC is eyeing to expand women's cricket by increasing the number of teams in the global tournaments, starting with the next ICC Women's World Cup being played by 10 teams. "Expanding the opportunities in a tournament, so I know the event that's coming up here in October is a 10-team event. The next version of the women's T20 World Cup will be a 12-team event and there will be discussions on whether that will expand further. Even the ICC Women's Championship is now being expanded to a 10-team event, so the two teams in Bangladesh and Ireland who are participating for the first time are getting better exposure to better opponents and getting comfortable with some of the best players in the world," said Aldrice. "And I think it will take time, the ICC creates a structure by which teams can compete. If you look at the associate member cricket over the last few years, there have been as many women's T20 internationals played amongst associate members as there have been for men. So the framework to compete is there. Sometimes they are going to perform well and get through the qualifiers. I think we are trying to expand the number of opportunities for teams in developing to ruin a spot on the big stage because that's the best way to promote get them into the World Cups and I think that's the next step for us," he said.