England white-ball captain Jos Buttler has stated that political situations shouldn’t affect the sport amid teams call to boycott Afghanistan in the upcoming 2025 Champions Trophy as well. However, a group of more than 160 parliamentary members in England signed a letter to ECB’s chief executive Richard Gould urging them to boycott England’s matches against Afghanistan on February 26. The calls for boycott come amid women not being allowed to take part in sport since the Taliban returned to power in 2021 as well.

As quoted by The Guardian, he said, “The players haven’t really worried too much about it. These things, you’re trying to educate yourself and read up on these things. There’s been some good stuff written about it that I’ve tapped into and I’ve spoken to quite a few people to try and gather expert opinion. I’m led by those experts on situations like this, but as a player, you don’t want political situations to affect sport. We hope to go to the Champions Trophy and play that game and have a really good tournament.”

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Afghanistan had defeated England in the 2023 World Cup match in Delhi. It proved to be the their first win over England in any format as well. Buttler further added that he has been in dialogue with the ECB and its members over the issue as well.

“Political situations like this, as a player you’re trying to be as informed as you can be. The experts know a lot more about it, so I’ve been trying to stay in dialogue with Rob Key [ECB men’s managing director] and the guys above to see how they see it. I don’t think a boycott is the way to go about it,” Jos Buttler concluded.