ICC faces Afghan flag issue

The International Cricket Council faces an anxious wait to see whether Afghanistan are ordered to compete under the Taliban flag at the Twenty20 World Cup. The move would put huge pressure on the sport’s governing body to act over the country’s participation in the tournament, which begins on October 17 in the UAE and Oman.

All 16 participating nations must submit the flags under which they will be playing in the coming days. This is normally a simple bureaucratic step but it could determine whether Afghanistan take part in the tournament.

The sacking of the chief executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board on Monday — Hamid Shinwari was replaced by Naseeb Zadran Khan, a decision believed to be at the behest of the Taliban — has raised fresh fears that the team may be told to play under the Taliban flag.

Should this be the case it is likely they would be barred from competing in the World Cup and potentially suspended by the ICC. It is understood that the governing body would call an emergency board meeting which could vote to suspend the side.

The ICC is already set to discuss Afghanistan’s membership in November. Under ICC rules, full members must have a national women’s team, although an exemption was offered when Afghanistan was brought into the fold in 2017. Earlier this month, the ICC said it was “concerned” about the fate of the women’s game in the country following the Taliban’s assertion that females would be banned from playing sport.

As one of 12 full members of the ICC, Afghanistan receives $5 million (£3.7 million) a year in funding and a vote on the board.