Afghanistan vs Black Caps, only test
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I'm sure this risks deserving to be in the politics thread, but i'm surprised that there's no discussion above about whether this test should have taken place in the first place. Given the Afghan approach to banning women's cricket, I tend towards the notion that their men shouldn't be allowed to play either. I thought the unveiling of the trophy was particularly sick given how much it looked like a burka was covering the bloody thing. Felt sorry for Tim Southee having to stand there like a lemon.
The ECB have stated that England won't play Afghanistan whilst the women's team are not allowed to play, but lets be honest, England had no intention of wasting a test on them anyway.
Keen to see NZ play more test cricket, but that would involve India, England and Aus actually sharing the bloody money with the other nations. Cricket is dying infront of our eyes in favour of stupid, presumably money laundering T10 and T20 tournaments globally that literally no one is watching.
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@Dodge said in Afghanistan vs Black Caps, only test:
I'm sure this risks deserving to be in the politics thread, but i'm surprised that there's no discussion above about whether this test should have taken place in the first place. Given the Afghan approach to banning women's cricket, I tend towards the notion that their men shouldn't be allowed to play either. I thought the unveiling of the trophy was particularly sick given how much it looked like a burka was covering the bloody thing. Felt sorry for Tim Southee having to stand there like a lemon.
The ECB have stated that England won't play Afghanistan whilst the women's team are not allowed to play, but lets be honest, England had no intention of wasting a test on them anyway.
Keen to see NZ play more test cricket, but that would involve India, England and Aus actually sharing the bloody money with the other nations. Cricket is dying infront of our eyes in favour of stupid, presumably money laundering T10 and T20 tournaments globally that literally no one is watching.
There’s still enough compelling test cricket to keep things interesting.
Sri Lanka beating England in England was a huge result as a recent example.
Ashes is always awesome and there is NO WAY Australia will ever do away with the Boxing Day test.
There’s still plenty of life left in the best format of the game.
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@Dodge I agree to a point, and the England stance of making it specifically about the women's team being able to play makes some sense, but at the same time where do you draw the line? Should we refuse to play Pakistan given the way women and anyone not Muslim is treated in that country? Hell we've only just started playing cricket again there given how bad things got, but they were never banned from competing. There's no easy answer, but I do worry when teams start making stances like that, as it opens up a can of worms, and when it comes to politics it's unlikely everyone is going to agree.
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@Dodge I also understand the sentiment, but think this is misguided. Banning the men doesn't hurt the Taleban at all but does screw the individual test players. Most of whom have a pretty harsh back story. Depriving them of a chance to play Test cricket seems to be heaping further misfortune on them.
The stance of Australia and England is IMO a self-serving excuse to avoid playing a fixture they don't want - hiding behind a veneer of hand wring social consciousness. It's worse than virtue signalling because it's deliberate hypocrisy.
I guarantee England's stance would have been different if they and Afghanistan had both won their T20WC semi's back in June
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There was a more thorough article on Stuff but that is paywalled. This article has some of the same quotes by NZC CEO Scott Weenink about the issue.
Questions raised over decision to play cricket test against Afghanistan
Australia pulled the plug on its three-match T20 series over worsening conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan.
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@SouthernMann said in Afghanistan vs Black Caps, only test:
Imagine going to some shithole in north India to play cricket and not even getting a game. It would be like us making a touring side play on the Chatham Islands in April then the game getting rained out.
Oh come on mate, you southerners produced 2 washed out tests in the space of 9 years haha.
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Random bit of trivia - kiwi umpire Steve Dunne was named to stand in two tests at his home ground, Carisbrook. Both were abandoned without a ball bowled (although the second was replaced with an unofficial one dayer).
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@Cyclops said in Afghanistan vs Black Caps, only test:
Random bit of trivia - kiwi umpire Steve Dunne was named to stand in two tests at his home ground, Carisbrook. Both were abandoned without a ball bowled (although the second was replaced with an unofficial one dayer).
For some reason, I feel like I came across that question before in quizzes haha.
