In general, my approach to life is not to lecture other countries, religions or cultures on how to do things. But one thing I will say is that the way Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have treated their women's cricket team and the way they treat women in general is truly horrible.
There is no other word for it. While their best women's cricketers are now hiding in Australia, the young girls back home are not receiving any education. Women can't even speak in public!
How the cricket world reacts to this is a very complicated topic, but one thing that is not up for debate is how badly Afghanistan's women and their sports teams are being treated. It is a form of gender apartheid.
The International Cricket Council's rules state that all its member nations must have a women's team, and the failure of Afghanistan has led to calls for the England men to boycott their Champions Trophy fixture against them in Lahore, Pakistan, next month.
So what steps, if any, should be taken? And by whom? It is a complex situation that reminds me of one I encountered as England captain 22 years ago, when faced with the dilemma of whether to play a World Cup match against Zimbabwe in Harare.
There were murmurs about Robert Mugabe's abhorrent regime in the build-up to the 2003 World Cup and I spoke to Michael Atherton in the garden before a one-day game against Australia in Melbourne. He advised me to read what was happening there.
Nasser Hussain during a press conference as his team prepared to boycott the Zimbabwe game
Hussain admitted that many of his players were close to tears when the decision was left to them.
Atherton told me to prepare because it was the kind of thing that could Snowball. It snowballed and to some extent it is happening here with this Champions Trophy match.
Soon, Tony Blair and the government told us we shouldn't go and that was a big game changer for me, because as England cricket captain you are an ambassador for your country. When your prime minister gets involved, it makes you think.
As I say, I've never believed in being too critical, as you can put yourself in a real bind by doing so. For example, more than half of the Champions Trophy matches held starting next month will be staged in Pakistan, a country where homosexuality remains a crime.
In 2003 I aspired to learn about President Mugabe's treatment of his own citizens and the situation made it clear to me that I did not want to be the captain of England to run the field in a match like that.
Mugabe was patron of Zimbabwe cricket, and was probably going to be there shaking hands pre-match, politicizing England's presence and making it look like we would tolerate his regime.
He was unwilling to shake hands with Mugabe, but there was no official directive from the government. They were advising rather than ordering the England and Wales Cricket Board not to go, and there was a subtle difference.
For its part, the ECB was worried about being fined and facing further repercussions for withdrawing from the fixture, as tournament regulations stated that the only way it could do so was in the realm of safety and security concerns.
The situation was further complicated by the fact that Zimbabwe were coming for a test series at the beginning of the summer of 2003. There were many financial implications.
Henry Olonga wears black armband in protest against Mugabe regime
Andy Flower, who would later become England head coach, also protested against the regime
England players were eager to shake hands with Mugabe, as he did with Australia captain Steve Waugh during a match in Harare in 1999.
There was no help from the British government, our governing body was not taking a stand and the ICC was also less helpful. In particular, ICC Chief Executive Malcolm Speed is unmoved by anything we said, constantly repeating that the only reason we didn't travel to Harare was on security grounds, otherwise we would have to lose points for the match.
So we ended up in a room in a Cape Town hotel, a squad of 15 players and backroom staff, divided over what to do next.
Personally, I didn't want to go. Others shared my point of view, but there were also some for whom the bets felt different. It was their World Cup, the culmination of four years of preparation as dedicated white-ball cricketers. This was their chance and losing points would jeopardize their chances of success. Others felt that politics and sports should not mix, that we were athletes and should be playing the games we were elected to play.
We went in circles, but the bombshell was a letter the ECB had from the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe, making death threats. If we had to travel, we would return home in coffins, he promised.
That changed the mood in the camp and gave me, someone who didn't want to go down like the England captain who went to Zimbabwe, an get-out clause. In the end, we faked it. The ICC were not accepting our reason for not traveling and we lost the points and ultimately the opportunity to progress from the group stage.
Looking back, do you wish you had gone? No, definitely not. I'm very proud that I didn't go, making a statement in the process. I just wish the statement we made had been a little stronger and that it had been for moral reasons.
History would have looked favorably on us for that, as it has on Henry Olonga and Andy Flower, the two Zimbabwean cricketers who mourned the death of democracy in their homeland with their black armband protest in their match against Namibia.
As England captain and coach, Duncan Fletcher we had a meeting with both of them in which they discussed what they were going to do. As we left, Duncan, a Zimbabwean, turned to me and said, “There go two very brave men.”
England have never played a bilateral series against Afghanistan, only in the ICC World Cups
Jos Buttler's side have been left with a headache over whether to lose their match
What I learned from that episode is that the powers that be, the government and the governing bodies, must make stronger statements. The ECB will argue that they have shown their position by not playing Afghanistan in bilateral cricket, only in official tournaments.
But if the old maxim about players playing and managing administrators is not followed, it will be up to each player to make up their own minds about how happy they are playing against Afghanistan.
However, don't overlook the complexities of the situation. In 2003, I was asked to go to Zimbabwe. Jos Buttler's team in England is not going to Afghanistan. Mugabe was a figurehead of Zimbabwe cricket. The Taliban have nothing to do with Afghan cricket. They don't care if England v Afghanistan goes ahead. They won't change anything if it doesn't.
You won't feel like a boycott of them, but it might be an appreciated gesture for the women of Afghanistan, knowing that someone is really thinking about them in the world at large.
Potentially those Afghan girls in Australia too, who just want to play cricket. Although the flip side of that is that it would take away the great pleasure they currently have – watching their men's team play and enjoy successes such as reaching the semi-finals of last year's Twenty20 World Cup.
Not having a women's cricket team is diabolical, but preventing the men's national team from playing better? Banning the men's team and conversation about the women's team and their plight falls from the spotlight. For England playing against the men, the women remain front and center of the conversation.
Such decisions should not be left to England's players, but I hope Buttler and his squad are grown up and vocal about this. I heard England captain Heather Knight give an interview the other day about this situation, and the more people can talk about, showing that we haven't forgotten about those careless women, the better.
England cricketers are grown men with families, with wives and daughters, who will be knowledgeable about Afghanistan and women's rights.
Let them convey their points of view. Next week, the Afghan women's team plays a game in Australia, and they must feel invisible and forgotten. It's up to Cricket to take every opportunity to make sure they aren't.