Michael Vaughan takes subtle jibe at Cricket Australia

Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has taken a dig at Cricket Australia (CA) by saying whether the Australian team would refuse to play Afghanistan in this year’s ODI World Cup which is scheduled to be held in India.

Vaughan’s remarks have come just days after CA decided to withdraw from playing a bilateral series against Afghanistan that was scheduled to take place in the UAE.

The three-match ODI series, which was supposed to take place in March this year, was a part of the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League. Cricket Australia’s decision to pull out from the series at the last minute invited severe criticisms from several corners on social media from the fans of the game as well as the members of the Afghanistan cricket team.

Michael Vaughan speaks in favour of Afghanistan

Taking to his official Twitter handle, Michael Vaughan wrote, “Will the Australians refuse to play Afghanistan in the World Cup this year .. they didn’t in the men’s T20 World Cup a few months ago !?????”

CA’s sudden decision of cancelling the bilateral series against Afghanistan has not gone down well with some of the cricketers from the country and they have decided not to participate in the Australia-based Big Bash League (BBL) going forward. These players include the likes of Naveen ul-Haq, veteran all-rounder Mohammad Nabi, and star leggie Rashid Khan.

Meanwhile, justifying the reason behind this last-minute cancellation, Cricket Australia has stated that the decision has been taken in the wake of the restrictions imposed by Taliban on the girls and women’s education in the country.

Notably, this is not the first time that CA has backed out from a bilateral series featuring Afghanistan. The Australian cricket body had also refused to host Afghanistan in a one-off Test match in Hobart due to similar reasons in November 2021.

However, there were absolutely no issues when it came to playing Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup 2022 in their own backyard as the Aussies had faced off against them in a Super 12 fixture last November.

Apart from the fans and Afghanistan players, even the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) was unhappy with the Australian board’s decision.