"Shame on all these men" - Martina Navratilova lashes out at ICC over unfair treatment of Afghanistan women's cricket team
Tennis legend Martina Navratilova lashed out at the International Cricket Council (ICC) over the unfair treatment of Afghanistan's women's cricket team. Navratilova criticized the men running the governing body, for giving male athletes an advantage over the female athletes.
Recently, women's cricket journalist Raf Nicholson hit out at the ICC for not doing enough for Afghanistan women's cricket. She pointed out that Afghanistan's women's cricket team is not allowed to train or play at home whereas the men's team does their training abroad.
She tweeted:
"ICC: very happy for the Afghanistan men's team to do all their training in another country, but when the women's team ask to do the same BECAUSE THEY LITERALLY AREN'T ALLOWED TO TRAIN / PLAY / EXIST AT HOME, ICC reps won't even meet them to discuss it."
Martina Navratilova replied to Nicholson's tweet, criticizing the men administrating the ICC. She wrote:
"Shame on all these men who keep giving male athletes every advantage possible denying same for women athletes."
While their men's cricket team is performing extremely well at the ongoing ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, Afghanistan remains the only full-member nation without a women's team. Since the Taliban regime took over, the Afghanistan women's team has not participated in international cricketing events.
ICC chief Geoff Allardice also commented on this issue. He said:
"Until something changes, that will remain the situation. It isn't that the Afghanistan Cricket Board wasn't developing women's cricket previously, it is just that they are not able to at the moment."
"Staging the WTA final there would represent not progress but regression" - Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert on staging WTA finals in Saudi Arabia
Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert were left agitated by WTA's decision to host the WTA finals in Saudi Arabia. Riyadh will host the WTA finals from 2024-26 after an agreement was reached between WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation.
In response to this news, tennis legends Martina Navratilova and Evert wrote an editorial for The Washington Post. The duo condemned WTA's move to stage the marquee event in Saudi Arabia, which they claimed was a country with questionable measures on LGBTQ and women's rights.
Evert and Navratilova wrote:
"A country which criminalizes the LGBTQ community to the point of possible death sentences. A country whose long-term record on human rights and basic freedoms has been a matter of international concern for decades. Staging the WTA final there would represent not progress, but significant regression."