King meets women’s cricket team that is not allowed to exist

Latifi, who left her own country in 2021 at the age of 17, during the evacuations from Afghanistan, wants the team to inspire women who are blocked from playing sport.

The cricket team’s survival – and this royal meeting – was a chance to speak up for women in Afghanistan and to show “all the things that they can’t do there”, she said.

She said that cricket had become her life, as she now worked as a coach, but it was also a lesson in not giving up.

“In life, you get one chance. In cricket, if you’re a batter, you might just bat once,” she said.

Her ambition for the Afghan women’s cricket team is to be able to play again, as the men’s team currently does, as part of the official cricketing world and under their own national flag.

Team-mate Shabnam Snahsan said it was “so disappointing” that the team could not take part in this summer’s World Cup.

But she was delighted that the Afghan women’s team was meeting the King and welcomed the public show of solidarity.

“Back in Afghanistan, women don’t have the right to play cricket, even to go out, to study or anything,” she said.

“We’re here to play cricket – but it’s not just cricket, we’re here to fight for them and this has meant a lot for us.”