England's Champions Trophy match against Afghanistan will go ahead, despite calls for a boycott. A cross-party letter, signed by nearly 200 UK politicians, was sent to the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) asking for England to refuse to play in response to the Taliban's human rights record.

The ECB board has confirmed that England's men will fulfil their fixture against Afghanistan at the Champions Trophy this month, despite describing the "appalling oppression" of women in the country as "gender apartheid".

The England and Wales Cricket Board faced calls to boycott the fixture in a show of solidarity with Afghanistans women, who are in exile due to a clampdown on female rights under the Taliban regime; w