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The Taliban have said that they will not interfere with the Afghanistan men's national cricket team or stop the growth of the Twenty20 competition, according to an Afghan cricket official. However, the future of women's cricket remains unclear.

Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive said Hamid Shinwari, “I think it will be stopped – that is my assumption. I really don’t know what the position in the future will be. We have kept the salaries and they are on our payroll. If the government decides that we don’t go with the national women’s team, we will have to stop it.”

Despite the fall of the Kabul government on Sunday, the board has confirmed a one-day series against Pakistan which will go ahead in Sri Lanka next month and said it was expanding the “Shpageeza” Twenty20 league competition.

“The Taliban don’t have any issue or problem with cricket, and they have told us that we can continue our work as planned,” said Afghanistan Cricket Board head of media operations Hikmat Hassan.

“We have completed our two training camps in Kabul and we have sponsors, a production team, and even the kit ready.”