Taliban approve cricket, ready to send Afghanistan team for Test match in Australia

Since the evacuation of the US and NATO forces from Afghanistan after the Taliban swept into Kabul last month, there have been fears that cricket and other sports would be hit.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has hampered and stopped many diplomatic ties between the country and the world. However, cricket might not be one of them. The Taliban government has approved the first test match for the country since coming to power. "We have got approval to send the team to Australia," the chief executive of the Afghanistan Cricket Board, Hamid Shinwari, told AFP. It’s a policy shift from the previous Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan between 1996-2001. During that stint, most forms of the entertainment were banned.