Jos Buttler makes massive statement on England vs Afghanistan clash in ICC Champions Trophy 2025 amid boycott calls

England captain Jos Buttler hoped that the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 clash against Afghanistan will go as planned despite calls of boycotting the game after Taliban regime’s assault on women rights. Both England and Afghanistan are in Group B, along with Australia and South Africa. England play Afghanistan on February 26 in Lahore.

The calls for boycott came from a cross-party group in the United Kingdom parliament which included more than 160 MPs. They wrote a letter to the England and Wales Cricket Board, urging the cricket team to boycott the match against Afghanistan.

Notably, since coming into power in 2021, the Taliban banned women from taking part in any kind of sport. Buttler had a word with ECB Director of Cricket Rob Key, and is not in favour of boycotting the game.

“Political situations like this, as a player you’re trying to be as informed as you can be,” said the England white-ball captain at the press conference ahead their first T20I against India on Tuesday.

“The experts know a lot more about it, so I’ve been trying to stay in dialogue with Rob Key and the guys above to see how they see it. I don’t think a boycott is the way to go about it,” he added.

Butter also mentioned that the players aren’t thinking too much on the matter. “There’s been some good stuff written about it that I’ve tapped into and I’ve spoken to quite a few people to try to gather expert opinion. I’m led by those experts on situations like this.

“But certainly as a player, you don’t want political situations to affect sport. We hope to go to the Champions Trophy and play that game and have a really good tournament,” added Buttler.

ECB rejects boycott idea

Earlier, ECB chief executive Richard Gould, in a letter to the International Cricket Council (ICC), strongly condemned the ‘gender apartheid’ in Afghanistan and rejected the idea of withdrawing from their Group B game during the ICC Champions Trophy 2025.