ICC bans transgenders, players who undergo sex-change surgery in women’s cricket

Dubai: The ICC Board has approved new gender eligibility regulations for the women's cricket following a 9-month consultation process with the sport’s stakeholders.

The new policy gives top priority to protection of the integrity of the women’s game, as also safety, fairness and inclusion, an ICC release said.

The policy signifies that any male to female participants who have 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.

The review, which was led by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee chaired by Dr Peter Harcourt, relates solely to gender eligibility for international women’s cricket.

Gender eligibility at domestic level is a matter for each individual member board, which may be impacted by local legislation. The regulations will be reviewed within two years, an ICC release said.

ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice said, “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 players.”

The Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) endorsed a plan to accelerate the development of female match officials which includes equalising match day pay for ICC umpires across men’s and women’s cricket and ensuring there is one neutral umpire in every ICC Women’s Championship series from January 2024. (UNI)