Fear or Rights; Will the Aussies cancel the Afghan Test? - EDITORIAL

Australia was part of the US-led coalition forces that had militarily occupied Afghanistan for nearly two decades. Commencing August 15 this year, the US and its partners cut and ran in the face of advancing Afghan troops under the leadership of the Taliban - the ruling party overthrown by the US invasion of that country 20 years ago.
Smarting after their military defeat, the US-led coalition – which included Australia- have continually raised fears for the rights of the Afghan people.

On Wednesday, Australia took the mind games to the next level.  According to media reports, Cricket Australia has threatened, it will cancel its inaugural men’s Test match with Afghanistan if reports that the Afghan women’s team cannot play under Taliban rule are true. What hypocrisy, what bombast, from 2002 Australia has had forces on the ground in Afghanistan following the overthrow of the Taliban, as part of a US-led coalition.

During the period Afghanistan was occupied by the US and its partners, which included Australia, at least 47,245 Afghan civilians were killed according to studies carried out by the Brown University ‘Costs of War Project’. Data published by Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) reveal, that of the 3,977 casualties caused between 2016 and 2020, 1,598 were children killed or wounded in attacks from the air. 

To make matters worse, Australian troops in Afghanistan are charged with committing war crimes against Afghan civillians. An investigation by the Australian Defence Forces (ADF) revealed “credible evidence” that Australian elite soldiers unlawfully killed 39 people during the Afghan war. The report added junior soldiers were ordered to get their first kill by shooting prisoners, in a practice known as “blooding”.

Weapons and other items were planted near Afghan bodies to cover up crimes. Two additional incidents could constitute a war crime charges of “cruel treatment” the report added.
Samantha Crompvoets, an academic who carried out the initial research into the incidents, told the BBC they were “deliberate, repeated and targeted war crimes”.

So what ails Australian cricket, Cricket Australia and the Australian cricket players? The world did not hear a squeak from either the Australian players, or the Australian establishment against atrocities committed against Afghan civillians, including women and children by the US-led coalition, which included Australian troops.
As the character ‘Alice’ in Lewis Carol’s “Alice in Wonderland” won’t say, ‘things get curiouser and curiouser’. The US is attempting to imprison one of Australia’s most famous journalists – Julian Assange - now held in a British prison for exposing American atrocities in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Cricket Australia is not threatening to pull its team out of cricketing tournaments, on behalf of one of its most famous sons. It brings to mind the biblical phrase… ‘First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye’.

Cricket Australia also failed to raise the issue when the US infringed the basic rights of world famous sportsman Mohamed Ali, stripping him of his World Championship title, in addition to suspending his boxing licence – in other words taking away his right to employment - for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War.  
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, as many as two million Vietnamese civilians were killed during the war. The US also used chemical agents and napalm bombs on civilian targets.

Is it that Cricket Australia stands up for human rights only in cases when Australian troops are not involved in the commission of these nefarious acts? Or, on the other hand, is the issue of ‘Afghan Women’s Rights’ a mere camouflage and an attempt to protect the Australian cricket team from a possible humiliating defeat by the minnows in cricket – Afghanistan.

Cricket Australia has just been on a major losing streak… during the last ‘Ashes Series’ the Aussies were right royally thumped by the Englishmen. More recently in August 2021, Bangladesh ‘brown-washed’ the once mighty Aussies in the T20 series 4 -1. 

The Afghan cricket star in the meantime has been in ascendency. In March 2019 against Ireland, Afghanistan achieved their first Test match victory in their second Test match, becoming the fourth team after Australia, England and Pakistan to win one of their first two Tests. In September 2019, Afghanistan beat hosts Bangladesh by 224 runs in a one-off Test tour.

This would not be the first time extraneous issues were used to cover the weakness of Aussie players. In Sri Lankans remember how Australians including a Prime Minister, challenged the action of champion off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan who was running circles round their batsmen.