Ireland’s men begin a five-match ODI series against Afghanistan in Bready on Wednesday, pushing ahead with a bilateral contest that sits uneasily with England’s refusal to face Afghanistan outside ICC events. Cricket Ireland has still committed to all five games in Northern Ireland this summer, with the first ball due to be bowled on Wednesday.
The decision matters because it puts Ireland on one side of a growing split in world cricket. The ECB and the UK government back a refusal to play Afghanistan bilaterally, while Ireland have chosen to keep their fixture with a side that remains central to the game even as debate around the Taliban regime intensifies.
Richard Thompson has sharpened that argument by describing the Taliban regime as “gender apartheid.” That language reflects the wider criticism of Afghanistan’s cricket setup, especially after the Taliban retook control in 2021 and the women’s programme collapsed. Afghanistan are the only ICC full member not to operate a women’s cricket programme, and the absence still shapes who is willing to play them and when.
Cricket Ireland, though, has built close relations with the Afghanistan Cricket Board and has shown no sign of backing away. England’s men played Afghanistan in a Champions Trophy group game in Lahore last year after a specially convened ECB board meeting approved the fixture, only for a cross-party group of 160 MPs to condemn it and urge withdrawal in a joint letter. The ECB has since said it will not schedule any bilateral cricket against Afghanistan.
There is also a practical edge to the disagreement. England played a one-off Test against Ireland at Lord’s as preparation for both the 2019 and 2023 home series, and the ECB has opted for a warm-up Test against Bangladesh next year. That does not amount to a formal trade-off, but it shows how the fixture calendar can be used to reward some boards and cool relations with others.
Ireland’s own schedule cuts both ways. England’s men played three T20 internationals in Ireland last September, but the ECB sent a second-string team for those matches. England’s women will host Ireland in a three-match ODI series next month. Against that backdrop, the five ODIs against Afghanistan look less like a one-off and more like a deliberate choice about who Ireland want to deal with.
The next checkpoint comes next March, when Ireland are due to play Afghanistan in the United Arab Emirates for one Test, three ODIs and three T20 fixtures. That makes Wednesday’s first ODI in Bready more than the start of a series. It is another test of whether bilateral cricket with Afghanistan is becoming the exception for some boards, or the rule they are prepared to live with.
