The Taliban take-over of Afghanistan in August 2021 affected many lives, especially those of women. As there were a lot of bans, that were imposed upon them, including the right to play cricket.

But sport has aways been a theatre for women to express their freedom and break the shackles of a patriarchal society. And we wanted the banned women of the Afghanistan Cricket team to have this right - albeit in the virtual world.

To make sure Afghani Women’s cricket team do not slip into oblivion, we gave them a chance to play in the ICC Women’s World Cup Finals - virtually -as the finals that could have happened.

To show our support to the Afghani Women’s cricket team, after it got banned by the Taliban, we decided to give them the chance they were robbed of - the chance to participate in ICC Women’s World Cup.

Hence, we recreated the exact same team that was banned on the popular game Cricket19. We replicated each and every player of the banned Afghanistan Women’s cricket team, replicating their real skills, jerseys, jersey numbers, names, playing order, etc. in the virtual world.

Then using one of the biggest gaming platforms STEAM we made this team play virtually on the same day and time when the real ICC women’s world cup finals were taking place.

This was perhaps the first time the gaming community played for a social cause and not just for fun.

On popular game Cricket19 we replicated each and every player of the banned Afghanistan Women’s cricket team, replicating their real skills, jerseys, jersey numbers, names, playing order, etc. in the virtual world. This virtual team participated in the finals that could have happened, coinciding with the real ICC Women’s World Cup Finals.

Though the campaign was primarily targeted at the E-sports gamers community, anyone who wanted to show their support could join this game as an audience while the finals were happening.

This was perhaps the first time the gaming community played for a social cause and not just for fun.

To show our support to the Afghani Women’s cricket team, after it got banned by the Taliban, we decided to give them the chance to participate in ICC Women’s World Cup.

Hence, we recreated the exact same team that was banned on the popular game Cricket19. We replicated each and every player of the banned Afghanistan Women’s cricket team, replicating their real skills, jerseys, jersey numbers, names, playing order, etc. in the virtual world.

Then using one of the biggest gaming platforms STEAM we made this team play virtually on the same day and time when the real ICC Women’s World Cup Finals were taking place (3rd of April 2022)

This was perhaps the first time the gaming community got the opportunity to play for a cause instead of passion. Though the campaign was primarily targeted at the E-sports gamers community, anyone who wanted to show their support could join this game as an audience while the finals were happening.

As a result, the 19-hour gameplay was live-streamed by leading gaming influencers and viewed by 12,90,200 people in real time, reached 74,55,213 users and garnered earned media worth INR 92,39,700. The campaign also made its way to primetime news, thereby creating awareness of Global E-sports beyond just the gamers community.

Most importantly, FAIRBREAK-The world’s largest organization that enables women to play cricket professionally, took notice of this campaign and reached out to the banned Afghani players in hiding for future opportunities.