MP says Test is just not cricket

FEDERAL MP Phillip Thompson says playing an international cricket match with a country run by the Taliban would legitimise a “terrorist group”.

Australia was set to play its first Test match against Afghanistan in November but Cricket Australia has warned the game will not go ahead unless the regime changes its stance on women playing sports after comments from a Taliban representative who said it was not “necessary” for women to play.

Mr Thompson was injured in an IED blast while fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan. He said even if the Taliban allowed women to play, the match would only allow an “illegitimate government” to fly its flag on our soil and said Australia should not ever support groups linked to Islamic terrorism including the Taliban, ISIS and the Haqqani network.

The Taliban took Afghanistan in August, reclaiming the country after a 20-year exile from power and earlier this week announced an interim government declaring the country an Islamic Emirate named the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The unrecognised state flies a different flag from the former Afghanistan and its newly announced leadership is made up of people sanctioned by the UN and on the FBI wanted list.

“We need to be very clear on our stance as our nation and I don’t think we should ever be supporting the Taliban,” Mr Thompson said.

“I don’t think it should happen and I have made my thoughts known to the Minister of Defence, the Prime Minister and of course the Assistant Minister of Defence.

“I also do not want to see the Taliban’s flag flying in this nation. If this game is to go ahead it provides another platform for the Taliban to speak.”