Afghanistan women’s cricket: The refugee team who will not be silenced
Thousands of miles away, Mel Jones received news from Indian journalists asking if she had heard of the situation of Afghan cricket team, Mel Jones sitting in a quarantine in an Australian hotel .
After the Taliban took over, the players sought help from the Afghan Cricket Committee (ACB), but were not obtained.
They themselves, under the rule of hardline Islamic organizations, are fearful.
The reporter kept Jones in touch with one of the players and she asked if there was anything that could help you. The player replied that all her teammates and the staff behind the scenes needed to leave Afghanistan.
Jones won two World Cups with Australia, then browsed her contact books and brought volunteers to the boat, including her friend Emma Staples, who used to be in cricket Cricket Victoria works with Dr. Catherine Ordway and Dr. Catherine Ordway, who have helped evacuate Afghan female football players.
They built a tight network of people who could help, including on the ground in Afghanistan, where they organized visas and transport, eventually taking 120 people out of the country, mainly Pakistan, and then taking military flights to Dubai . From there they flew to Australian government-backed commercial flights to Melbourne or Canberra.
“I don’t think I understood the tremendous nature of what we were doing,” Staples said. “We were told we might not be able to save everyone.
“For me, it’s a joke that we are now as the backyard immigration service. It is submitting visa documents, passport documents and trying to transfer the money to Afghanistan for girls to buy their passports.
“It was six weeks of collecting information from family members, trying to get proof of identity, but we only have this extraordinary spreadsheet detailing everyone.”
She said communication with players was “really challenging” but “Google Translation can’t solve it.”
Staples recalled smiling and recalled: “We are now giggling with the language barrier, and I’m called different names like “delicious” and some other weird stuff.”
“For them, it’s all so fast that I don’t think they have time to think about what they have to leave behind. I have no doubt that some of them are experiencing the survivor’s inner gui.”
Jones, 52, now a cricket broadcaster, said it was sometimes unclear that the mission would be successful.
“We have to fight the system when everyone says it’s impossible,” Jones said.
“Nothing sounds easy, some moments feel like you are Jason Bourne movie,“She said, recalling trying to comment on TV, while also sending messages to a player who is struggling to find a car that can be safe and secure.
“She couldn’t find the car and was going to different people and I had to warn her you couldn’t do it (for safety reasons), but then I had another comment so I had to say ‘Don’t do this until I’m back! ‘.
“It was the terrible part for me, just making sure they made the right decision.”
