Female cricketers from Afghanistan hope their first competitive match in Australia will “open doors for Afghan women for education, sport and [the] future”.

An Afghanistan Women’s XI played a 20-over exhibition match against Cricket Without Borders at Melbourne’s Junction Oval on Thursday, before the Women’s Ashes Test between Australia and England at the nearby Melbourne Cricket Ground.

More than 20 members of the Afghanistan national team have been in Australia since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, because female participation in sport in the country has effectively been outlawed.

But they are now hoping to send a message of hope and positivity to their country.

“We are going to represent millions of Afghan women who are in Afghanistan and denied their rights,” player Firoza Amiri told Cricket Australia before the match.

“It’s very special for all of us to get back together after three years, leaving everything and losing everything back home in Afghanistan.”

In 2020, 25 players were given professional contracts by the Afghanistan Cricket Board but after the Taliban returned and they could no longer play or train safely, they had asked the International Cricket Council (ICC) for permission to play as a refugee team. The request was denied.

For the exhibition match, the side could not play under the name of Afghanistan women because they are not recognised as a national team by the ICC and they had to wear a custom-made kit as opposed to the official logo.

Benafsha Hashimi, one of the Afghan players, designed the logo which depicted a red tulip and a golden wattle – the national flowers of Australia and Afghanistan – entwined around a cricket ball.