The ICC has announced that trans women will no longer be allowed to play international women’s cricket – here’s what the decision means.

What are the ICC’s new gender eligibility rules?

The decision has come at the end of a nine-month consultation process with ICC stakeholders, and a review led by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee. It states that “any male-to-female participant who has been through any form of male puberty will not be eligible to participate in the international women’s game, regardless of any surgery or gender reassignment treatment they may have undertaken”.

It’s worth clarifying here that all the doctors on the ICC Medical Advisory Committee are cis men, and that there was no detail of the review’s findings or methods included in the press release, or that is accessible on the ICC website.

The chief executive of the ICC, Geoff Allardice, was quoted in the release as saying: “The changes to the gender eligibility regulations resulted from an extensive consultation process and is founded in science and aligned with the core principles developed during the review. Inclusivity is incredibly important to us as a sport, but our priority was to protect the integrity of the international women’s game and the safety of the players.”

The release also clarified that the review “relates solely to gender eligibility for international women’s cricket, whilst gender eligibility at domestic level is a matter for each individual Member Board”.

What this means for trans women 

There is currently only one player who is an active international cricketer and a trans woman. Danielle McGahey made her international debut earlier this year in a T20I against Brazil. She has played six T20Is for Canada and averages 19.66 with a high score of 48 off 45 balls. 

The ICC previously amended their player eligibility regulations in 2021. Under that amendment, a trans woman playing international cricket would have to keep their testosterone levels “less than 5 nanomoles per litre continuously for a period of at least 12 months, and that she is ready, willing and able to keep it below that level for so long as she continues to compete in the female category of competition”.

As of September 2023, McGahey met that criteria to play international cricket for Canada women. A day after the ICC’s new eligibility criteria was announced, she released a statement via Instagram, announcing her retirement from international cricket. The statement read: “Following the ICC’s decision this morning, it is with a very heavy heart that I must say that my international cricketing career is over. As quickly as it begun, it must now end. Thank you so much to everybody who has supported me in my journey, from all of my teammates, all of the opposition, the cricketing community.

“While I hold my opinions on the ICC’s decision, they are irrelevant. What matters is the message being sent to millions of trans women today, a messaging say that we don’t belong. I promise I will not stop fighting for equality for us in our sport, we deserve the right to play cricket at the highest level, we are not a threat to the integrity of safety of the sport.”

When McGahey made her international debut in September this year, the opposition captain was Roberta Moretti Avery. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo on the ICC’s announcement, Avery said: “It’s a decision that appears to have been made by the ICC in good faith with the benefit of the most recent scientific advice. That said, the timing of the decision is really unfortunate.

“Danielle McGahey was allowed to play in the recent World Cup Qualifier on the basis of the rules that applied at the time. As a result, she was subjected to a lot of abuse from people who have never met her and who do not understand the difficult journey she has been on.

“She and her team-mates also had a reasonable expectation that she would be allowed to play in future matches. So it’s unfortunate that this decision has been made after the event, once Danielle’s hopes had been raised and after she has already been exposed to a huge amount of scrutiny and abuse. That can’t be good for anyone’s mental health. The ICC lifted the hopes of a whole community and it feels like those hopes have now been dashed.”

While the new rules effectively ban all trans women from playing international women’s cricket, except those who have not gone through male puberty, individual boards may still permit trans women to play domestic cricket. 

The ECB announced their own policy on trans people playing cricket in 2022. Article 11.3 states: “A trans woman may compete in any open competition, league or match or any female only competition, league or match and should be accepted in the gender with which they identify.” In terms of professional cricket, the ECB makes their decision on a case-by-case basis, and trans women cannot play professional women’s cricket without clearance from the ECB. 

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