After being evacuated from Afghanistan to Australia in 2021, these women have just played their first cricket match as a team — ever.

Afghan refugee women cricketers hope to seize a wealth of opportunities as a charity match in Melbourne seeks to promote sports and education for women in the future.

On Thursday, an Afghan women’s cricket team will take on a Cricket Without Borders XI at Melbourne’s Junction Oval.

Afghanistan women's cricket team will take the field in an exhibition match in Australia, but their cricketing plight remains in a stalemate.

Cricketer Firooza Amiri says her team will "represent millions of women in Afghanistan who are denied their rights” when the side reunites after more than three years for an exhibition game in Australia on Thursday.

The exiled Afghanistan womens cricket team faced Cricket Without Borders XI in Melbourne at the Junction Oval on Thursday; Afghanistans coach described the historic fixture is more important than ever

Firooza Amiri says she and her fellow exiles want to keep representing their country during and beyond their match against Cricket Without Borders in Melbourne

For Afghanistan's women cricketers, their first competitive match since escaping oppression in their home country represents a significant step in their sporting journey - although the path ahead may not be the one they envisaged before.

Global cricket needs to move away from "random and inconsistent," outbursts of support for Afghanistan's exiled women's cricketers and towards a "systematic global approach." That's the view of the global player body,