Will the International Olympic Committee (IOC) allow the Afghanistan men’s cricket team to participate at the 2028 Los Angeles Games in the absence of a women’s team? IOC president Thomas Bach has said the governing body will continue to “monitor very closely” how much access and support women receive to play sport in the war-torn country, which has been under the rule of the Taliban since August 2021.

The Afghanistan question was put to Bach on Monday at a media briefing in Mumbai, immediately after IOC members voted in favour of T20 cricket featuring at the LA Games in five years. As part of its presentation, LA Local Organising Committee officials had stressed the importance of gender equality to the Games while recommending cricket along with baseball/softball, lacrosse sixes, and flag football as team sports. During its presentation to LA28, the ICC, too, had highlighted inclusivity as a key factor.

Afghanistan are the only Full Member country to not have a women’s cricket team, despite it being a key criteria for ICC membership. Afghanistan gained Full Member status in 2017 on the understanding that the country would create pathways for women to play representative cricket. However, cultural sensitivities at the time meant progress was slow. In 2020 the ACB created a pool of 25 contracted female cricketers, but 22 of them moved to Australia after the Taliban takeover.

An ICC working group, lead by deputy chairman Imran Khwaja, has met with Taliban officials to discuss the situation and recommended to the ICC that instead of penalising the ACB, dialogue should continue in the hopes of finding a solution. The ICC board, which met in July, broadly approved that recommendation, maintaining the ultimate aim of helping women play cricket in Afghanistan.

The IOC has not yet cleared Afghanistan athletes’ participation for the 2024 Olympics in Paris, and has warned the country’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) it is in danger of suspension if access to sport for females continued to be restricted. That point was reiterated by James Macleod, IOC head of Olympic Solidarity and National Olympic Committee Relations. Macleod has been communicating with the Taliban’s director of physical education and sport, to deal with what he described as a “very complex situation”.

“We have had ongoing conversations and discussions with the Afghan government authorities since that regime change,” Macleod told IOC members on Sunday on the first day of the Mumbai session. “And we’ve been insisting on removing existing barriers from the government that hinder women and young girls from accessing sport opportunities in the country. The IOC executive board took a very clear position on this in December 2022, and we have reiterated that position with the government authorities on numerous occasions, including last week, where we met the new Director of Sport and Physical Education to reiterate the IOC’s position on that.”

Macleod said the IOC had observed a “tiny change” as Afghanistan female athletes participated in the Asian Games in Hangzhou (China) recently. “There has been some progress, a tiny bit of progress. We witnessed that in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where the Afghan delegation consisted of 83 athletes, of which 17 were females in three different sports. This also included having a joint male and female flag bearer.”

All of the five medals Afghanistan bagged at the Asian Games were won by their male athletes, but the women – all of whom reside overseas – competed in volleyball, athletics and cycling. Macleod said the Afghan women’s performances “are certainly recognised within the country and are greatly appreciated”, which has facilitated conversations with the Taliban.

On Monday Bach highlighted the Asian Games example and said it had shown “a significant, if not a majority, of the female representation”, which was encouraging. “So we are keeping a close eye on this. And we have also been encouraged by our member in Afghanistan, Sameera Ashghari, to continue our support for female athletes and their entourage in Afghanistan and for the ones who are not living in Afghanistan. The same request I had from a member of the team of Afghanistan, from a female member, when I met her in Hangzhou at the Asian Games.”

Bach pointed out the state of progress and the efforts of the Afghanistan NOC would determine the IOC’s stance on cricket at Los Angeles Olympics. “In this broader context, cricket will be considered. In the end, it must be a decision then about the situation of the NOC, as such, [and] of the representation of the team.”