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The UAE leg of the IPL 2021 will not be broadcast in Afghanistan, as it has been in the past, due to the possibility of “anti-Islamic content” being broadcast during the broadcast.

After Taliban have taken control of Afghanistan as most forms of entertainment, including many sports, have been outlawed by the regime, and women have been barred from participating in sports entirely.

M Ibrahim Momand, a former media manager for the Afghanistan Cricket Board and a journalist, tweeted that the IPL is banned in the country due to possible anti-Islam content, girls dancing, and the attendance of barred hair women in the Taliban's Islamic Emirates.

Even though the hardline Islamists have shown they do not mind men playing cricket, pulling together a match in the capital Kabul shortly after foreign forces withdrew, Bashir Ahmad Rustamzai, Afghanistan’s new director-general for sports, had last week declined to answer as to whether women will be allowed to play sports deferring it for top-level Taliban leaders to decide.

The takeover has called into question the future of Afghanistan’s participation in Test matches, as under International Cricket Council regulations, nations must also have an active women’s team.

Earlier, Australia’s cricket chiefs threatened to cancel a historic maiden Test between the two countries set to take place in November after a senior Taliban official went on television to say it was “not necessary" for women to play.