TALIBAN BAN IPL BROADCAST IN AFGHANISTAN, HAQQANI NEW ACB CHAIRMAN
NEW DELHI: The Taliban-ruled Afghanistan has banned the broadcast of the Indian Premier League (IPL) in the country over the presence of “female audience and spectators” in stadiums.
Ever since the Taliban’s takeover of the strife-torn country last month, the international sporting community has been concerned about the fundamentalist group’s position on women participating in sports.
Former Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) media manager and journalist M Ibrahim Momand said the live broadcast of IPL matches was banned due to possible “anti-islamic” content.
“Afghanistan national (TV) will not broadcast the @IPL as usual as it was reportedly banned to live the matches resumed tonight due to possible anti-islam contents, girls dancing & the attendance of barred (sic) hair women in the (stadium) by Islamic Emirates of the Taliban,” Momand had tweeted on Sunday when the IPL action resumed.
Top Afghanistan cricketers like Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb ur Rahman are taking part in IPL 2021.
According to a media report, Afghanistan’s new sports chief last week said that the Taliban will allow 400 sports -- but declined to say anything on women’s participation. “Please don’t ask more questions about women,” he was quoted as saying. During the extremist group’s regime from 1996 to 2001, women were banned from playing any sport.
CEO of Afghan cricket board sacked
The Taliban have sacked the head of Afghanistan’s cricket board, replacing him with a member of the feared Haqqani network, responsible for some of the worst attacks in the country’s history.
Hamid Shinwari posted on his Facebook page on Monday that he has been removed on the orders of senior Haqqani officials, a branch of the Taliban. “Anas Haqqani visited the cricket board and told me very clearly that my job as the (chief) executive officer was over,” Shinwari wrote on his Facebook page. Anas Haqqani is a senior Taliban official and the younger brother of Afghanistan’s new interior minister Sirajuddin Haqqani.