England’s men’s cricket team should play against Afghanistan in the Champions Trophy, despite calls for a boycott in response to the Taliban regime’s assault on women’s rights, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy says.

Female participation in sport has effectively been outlawed since the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.

A cross-party letter, signed by nearly 200 UK politicians, has been sent to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) calling for England to refuse to play in the Champions Trophy match in Lahore on 26 February.

However, Nandy told BBC Breakfast on Friday: “I do think it should go ahead.

“I am instinctively very cautious about boycotts in sport, partly because I think they are counterproductive.

“I think they deny sports fans the opportunity they love and they can very much penalise the athletes and sportspeople who work very, very hard to reach the top of their game and are then denied the opportunities to compete.

“They are not the people we want to penalise for the appalling actions of the Taliban against women and girls.”

International Cricket Council (ICC) regulations state full membership is conditional upon having women’s cricket teams and pathway structures in place.

However, Afghanistan’s men’s team have been allowed to participate in ICC tournaments seemingly without any sanctions.

Sir Keir Starmer was asked directly about the matter at Prime Minister’s Questions earlier this week by Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi, who authored the cross-party letter addressed to the ECB.

The prime minister said “the suppression of freedom” should be “condemned in the strongest terms” and said the government was speaking with international counterparts on the issue.