Ric flags Taliban worry
AN INTERNATIONALLY renowned Tasmanian cricket statistician is concerned about the prospect of the Taliban flag flying above Hobart’s Blundstone Arena this summer.
The stunning takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban following the American evacuation has left cricket in a state of confusion and cast a cloud of uncertainty over Afghanistan’s proposed first Test against Australia in Hobart in November.
The traditional tricoloured
Afghanistan flag has been taken down from government buildings in Kabul and been replaced by the mainly white Taliban flag bearing the regime’s formal name: Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
Ric Finlay, the Tasmanian statistician whose Tastats service is used around the globe, is a great admirer of the Afghanistan team but feels “uneasy’’ about the “optics’’ of the Test, including the new Talibansanctioned flag flying at Blundstone Arena.
“That (the Taliban flag flying) would be an anathema to me,’’ Finlay said. “The symbolism of what it would mean is immense. I don’t think (the new flag) will fly. I don’t think the authorities would let it. That decision may be made by high up government sources.
“I am uneasy with it. Hopefully this Test won’t be used to validate what happened in Kabul.
“But there is a lot of water to go under the bridge yet. I certainly welcome the Afghanistan team because they are not what the Taliban represents.
“They started in exile, embraced the game and have done really well and I will love watching them play if they come … but it is the symbolism around this game. Who are they actually representing?
“The issue of what is happening with the Afghanistan women’s team is also the elephant in the room.’’
When they were last in power two decades ago the Taliban banned or restricted women from studying or playing sport and while Taliban officials have given permission for their men’s team to play Australia in November, the future of their women’s side remains
clouded. Afghan women’s cricketer Roya Samin, who fled Afghanistan days before the Taliban took over Kabul, told The Guardian she feared for many of her teammates who were left behind.
“The Taliban are against girls studying, so how do they want a girl’s cricket team?” Samin said. “My other teammates who stay in Afghanistan are afraid, they stay in their houses. They are sad, they ask people to please help us. Emotionally and physically, they are not good.
“We all emailed the ICC but got no response from them. Why do they not respond to us, why do they not consider us, even treat us that we don’t exist in the world?’’