{"id":22081,"date":"2023-11-07T06:05:07","date_gmt":"2023-11-07T06:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/aussies-face-double-standards-blast-over-afghanistan-clash\/"},"modified":"2023-11-07T06:05:07","modified_gmt":"2023-11-07T06:05:07","slug":"aussies-face-double-standards-blast-over-afghanistan-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/aussies-face-double-standards-blast-over-afghanistan-clash\/","title":{"rendered":"Aussies face \u2018double standards\u2019 blast over Afghanistan clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div dir=\"auto\">\n<p>MUMBAI: Australia star Steve Smith said the decision to let the team play Afghanistan in a crunch World Cup match was \u201cabove my pay-grade\u201d as Cricket Australia faced accusations of \u201cdouble-standards\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this year, CA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1731264\">scrapped<\/a> a three-match One-day International series against Afghanistan on the grounds the Taliban, who regained power in 2021, had placed fresh limits on education and work opportunities for Afghan women and girls, including female cricketers.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1731264\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>In the run-up to Tuesday\u2019s high-stakes match in Mumbai, Afghanistan fast bowler Naveen-ul-Haq took to social media to suggest there was an element of hypocrisy in CA abandoning the one-day games but going ahead with a World Cup match where it had something to lose.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRefusing to play the bilateral series, now it will be interesting to see cricket Australia stand in the World Cup <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/trends\/standards\">#standards<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/trends\/human\">#human<\/a> rights or 2 points,\u201d Naveen wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Former Australia captain Smith, however, told a pre-match press conference at Mumbai\u2019s Wankhede Stadium on Monday: \u201cWe obviously played against Afghanistan in the T20 World Cup at home recently and we\u2019re playing tomorrow [Tuesday] so it\u2019s not a question for me, it\u2019s far above my pay grade.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cricket Australia had earlier responded to Naveen\u2019s post, with a spokesperson telling <em>News Corp Australia<\/em>: \u201cCA made the decision not to proceed with the three match ODI series against Afghanistan in March following the announcement by the Taliban of further restrictions on women\u2019s rights including education and employment opportunities and the access to parks and gymnasiums.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a distinction between playing bilateral series against Afghanistan which falls under CA control as compared to playing in a World Cup tournament which is an ICC [International Cricket Council] event and subject to their regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Tuesday\u2019s World Cup match has plenty of significance for both sides, with emerging nation Afghanistan still in contention for a semi-final place after winning four of their seven pool matches so far during the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said he had no interest in looking back ahead of such an important fixture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think right now we have a game tomorrow in the World Cup. If we focus on that, instead of these things [CA\u2019s position on Afghanistan], it will be better,\u201d Shahidi told reporters at the Wankhede later on Monday.<\/p>\n<p><figure class=\"media  sm:w-full  w-full  media--stretch    media--uneven  media--stretch\"><figcaption class=\"media__caption  \">* Flags indicate the winning teams<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>There have been boycotts and walkovers at previous World Cups, with both Australia and the West Indies forfeiting matches in Sri Lanka during the 1996 edition on security grounds.<\/p>\n<p>England also refused to play a match against 2003 co-hosts Zimbabwe, citing safety concerns, with the lost points contributing to their early exit from that edition<\/p>\n<p>Five-time champions Australia still need to win one of their final two group games, against Afghanistan and Bangladesh, to secure a place in the knockout stage and Smith said they\u2019re peaking at the right time heading into the business end of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Since losing to India and South Africa in their first two matches of the tournament, Australia have won five in a row and are third in the standings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou do want to be peaking at the right time in the end, but obviously you need to do enough to make the semi-finals,\u201d Smith said. \u201cI think that\u2019d be the beauty of it if we were able to get there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re playing some good cricket so hopefully we can have a good day tomorrow, get ourselves in there and give ourselves a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Smith has struggled at the World Cup, scoring 205 runs in seven innings at an average of under 30. But he remains one of Australia\u2019s better players of slow bowling, a skill required against an Afghanistan attack where spinners Rashid Khan, Mujeeb ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi have impressed during the World Cup.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"media  sm:w-1\/2  w-full  media--right  media--embed  media--uneven\">\n<p>    <iframe class=\"nk-iframe\" onload=\"setInterval(()=&gt;{try{this.style.height=this.contentWindow.document.body.scrollHeight+'px';}catch{}}, 100)\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"height:400px;position:relative\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/card\/1783074\" sandbox=\"allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-popups allow-modals allow-forms\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Afghanistan, who had enjoyed just one win from all their appearances at two previous World Cups, against non-Test side Scotland, have been one of the surprise packages in India with wins over reigning champions <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1781235\">England<\/a>, 1992 title-winners <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1783074\">Pakistan<\/a> and 1996 kings <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dawn.com\/news\/1785075\">Sri Lanka<\/a> to their credit.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey [Afghanistan] have won some key moments in games against some good teams and clearly their spinners are a big threat, they\u2019re quality bowlers and they\u2019ve got some batters particularly at the top of the order that are taking the game on and can take it away from you,\u201d said Smith.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re a good side and I think they\u2019ve come a long way in the last five or six years. They\u2019re a tough side and you\u2019ve got to play well to beat them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2023<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MUMBAI: Australia star Steve Smith said the decision to let the team play Afghanistan in a crunch World Cup match was \u201cabove my pay-grade\u201d as Cricket Australia faced accusations of \u201cdouble-standards\u201d. Earlier this year, CA scrapped a three-match One-day International series against Afghanistan on the grounds the Taliban, who regained power in 2021, had placed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/65495b391113e.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}