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.

So what are the ways forward?

Playing as Afghanistan Women

Against Cricket Without Borders, the players will compete as the Afghanistan Women's XI as opposed to Afghanistan Women and wear a kit specifically designed for the match as opposed to a national team uniform.

Mel Jones, the commentator who was instrumental in helping the formerly contracted Afghanistan Women's team players escape their country after the Taliban took over in 2021, says that until the ICC recognises them as a national team, those differences are likely to remain.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board and ICC say they cannot do so as it would contravene the country's laws. This is why Afghanistan have been allowed to retain ICC membership, despite not currently fulfilling the requirement to commit to developing women's cricket.

The ICC are a member-led organisation, bound by the vote of its member boards and, if the boards who support recognising an Afghanistan Women's team are in the minority, the governing body can argue its hands are tied.

"Anything to do with these players as a team would be their own individual team," Jones told ESPNcricinfo's Powerplay podcast. "They won't play underneath the ACB or the Afghanistan flag as a side.

"But what we're trying to navigate at the moment is how can we allow them the opportunity of still feeling part of their country while not saying that they're the Afghanistan Women's cricket team because my understanding is that that will never be the case.

"That is really, really tough for them as a group to try and understand. I still don't think most of them have got their heads around that at the moment, and that just adds to the trauma. I think, hopefully, that they themselves know that they were the contracted players, the contracted Afghanistan women's players at the fall of Afghanistan, and they get an opportunity to once again play, for the first time really, as that group."

Jones acknowledged the complexities of the sport's governance, but highlighted the need for discussion. She credited Nick Hockley, Cricket Australia's outgoing CEO, for meeting the players on several occasions and listening to their concerns.

"The ability to sit down and listen has made such a difference to this group, and that's probably the one piece that I would say we've been really bad at over the last four years, is that people turn their back on that conversation," Jones said.

"I would hope that if we learn anything from this, if something like this happens again, that we just don't turn our back on people and hope that silence will make it go away because it just doesn't."

Refugee team

In the meantime, one sticking point to fielding a refugee team is that, unlike the Olympic refugee team, which comprises individual athletes from various countries, this team is from only one nation. Any refugee team would have to be open to players in exile from other countries, unless this team is recognised purely as the Afghanistan Refugee team.

Even then, the fact that some of the exiled Afghan players reside in the UK and Canada poses logistical challenges for bringing the team together, particularly without the funding to do so.

Benafsha Hashimi, one of the exiled Afghanistan players in Australia, said the upcoming match could be a stepping stone to wider recognition as a team.

"Of course I want to play under my country name, that is my dream, that was the reason that I'm here," Hashimi said. "We have tried many times, email and sending the letter to the ICC, but unfortunately all the time they're just ignoring us, which is quite upsetting.

"We are living in different states, I know, but the thing is we were living in a different state in Afghanistan too. It doesn't really make anything change. I can still play and we can still catch up. It's not really a big deal to do it, so I will definitely go for it.

"We said all the time that we can't go by jumping, we have to go step by step. It's a good starting step. I'm so excited for it. I can say it's a special feeling inside that I can't really explain it how it's been to me. It's like a really big step for me."

Funding

The ECB, who along with Cricket Australia have declined to field men's teams in bilateral series against Afghanistan, recently wrote to the ICC asking, among other things that they withhold a proportion of funding from the Afghanistan Cricket Board until women's and girls' cricket is reinstated in the country.

Firooza Amiri, one of the players who escaped Afghanistan and is now based in Melbourne, told the podcast that this week's game marked the start of the team's goal to play for Afghanistan - in whatever guise - and in receiving financial support to do that.

"It's not only a match for us, it's a huge step," Amiri said. "It's going to be a very big step that we are taking toward our journey of cricket.

"The ICC ignored us as a refugee team and also as a Afghanistan national team that represent Afghanistan and obviously the Afghanistan Cricket Board ignored us as well. But Cricket Australia took a huge step for us.

"From here, it doesn't matter if we are Afghan Exiles or Afghan XI or Afghanistan refugee team or anything. Our hope is only to represent Afghanistan in some ways and women outside and inside Afghanistan look at us as a representative of Afghanistan.

"What we are hoping from here is to continue playing for Afghanistan under Afghan XI team and we just want world help us with this journey."

Cricket's global player union has called for the introduction of "basic global protections" to ensure franchise leagues pay players on time. The World Cricketers' Association (WCA) say that long-standing issues around late payments are "not getting better" but fear that cricket is incapable of "solving transnational issues" under its current structure.

Insiders say that the issue has spiralled out of control of late, with a proliferation of new leagues in recent years. The WCA launched a 'leagues hub' last year which details 53 men's and women's leagues, including several which do not have ICC approval. Of those, the WCA say they have received reports of late or non-payment issues in 17.

Tom Moffat, the WCA's chief executive, told ESPNcricinfo: "Late and non-payment is a persistent issue in domestic leagues globally, and the issue is not getting better. We have advocated for a long time for some basic global protections that could assist the players, and the game, to address this issue."

The WCA believes the ICC should introduce a global arbitration body - similar to FIFA's Dispute Resolution Chamber in football - to adjudicate in cases where players are chasing outstanding payments. The ICC's stance is that issues involving domestic leagues are a matter for member boards, and do not fall under their jurisdiction.

"In any league that is officially sanctioned, players should have confidence that their contracts have some basic protections and minimum standards in them," Moffat said. "These include standards around payment terms, and that there is a fit-for-purpose enforcement mechanism, such as a global arbitration body, to address breaches.

"We've assisted a number of players globally to take collective action in the past, but it shouldn't come to that. The game is not currently capable of solving transnational issues like this at the moment and that needs to change if it wants to continue to claim to be a leading global sport in 2025."

One player agent told ESPNcricinfo: "Some of these tournaments have no fear of ramifications They sign big names promising huge contracts, pay a small percentage to get them on the flight, and never pay them another penny. The only solution to this is that the ICC, in return for sanctioning a tournament, has to provide some sort of system to verify that payments will be made."

One commonly proposed solution is for leagues to pay players centrally via an escrow account. This mechanism would involve franchises paying their total wage bill directly to a third-party account before the start of a season, with the league then distributing salaries to players in line with their individual contracts - avoiding a situation where league and franchise blame one another for late payment.

Multiple sources have identified the growing circuit of T10 leagues as a repeat offender. Max60, a league which launched in the Cayman Islands last year, conceded that 10% of player wages remain outstanding from their inaugural tournament in August, while ESPNcricinfo understands that some players are yet to receive payment from November's Abu Dhabi T10.

The Abu Dhabi T10 acknowledged some teams have paid players late, though described these as "isolated incidents". A spokesperson said: "T10 has successfully operated in UAE for eight years now and never had any issues. While there have been isolated incidents of teams delaying payments, the league takes full responsibility for ensuring that all dues are cleared as soon as they come to our attention.

"As of now, we are not aware of any specific player formally reporting an issue," they added. "However, we maintain a strict policy of addressing such matters promptly and taking the necessary action The majority of players have been paid, and the remaining payments are currently being processed."

A Max60 spokesperson said: "We plan to complete payments within the next two weeks. We did experience significant issues, such as one franchise not paying their agreed fees, which led to delays. However, with it being our first season, we are comfortable with our learnings." The start date for the second edition of Max60 was recently postponed from March 13 to May 24.