ECB Ban Transgender Women from Elite Levels of Women's Cricket from 2025
The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced that transgender women who have gone through male puberty will be banned from the top two tiers of women's cricket and the women’s Hundred competition starting in 2025.
This decision aligns with the International Cricket Council's (ICC) ruling from 2023, which also bars transgender women who have experienced male puberty from participating in international women's cricket.
The ECB’s previous policy allowed transgender women to participate in women's cricket with written clearance. However, the board confirmed that no transgender players had ever applied to play at the elite level.
Following the ICC’s rule change in 2023, Canadian cricketer Danielle McGahey, the first transgender woman to play an official international match, retired from international cricket.
The ECB has explained that the decision was made to ensure consistency across the professional cricketing landscape, as a key goal of the domestic game is to nurture players for the international stage.
"The ECB has decided that from 2025 it will adopt the same approach as the ICC for women's professional domestic cricket," the board said.
The policy will be applied to Tiers 1 and 2 of the women’s domestic structure and the Hundred but will not affect recreational cricket and lower-tier competitions, where the focus is more on participation than on competitive balance. The ECB has not announced whether it will conduct a review of this policy after it is implemented, but the ICC plans to review its own regulations within two years.
The board's decision follows extensive consultations and takes into account both scientific and medical evidence, as well as discussions on fairness, safety, and inclusion.
"Considerable time has been taken to reach this policy position," the ECB stated, adding, "It is impossible to balance all the considerations."
While the ECB has emphasised fairness at the elite level, it has maintained an inclusive approach for recreational cricket.
The new rule will bring cricket in line with other sports in the UK, such as rugby, swimming, and cycling, which have adopted similar policies regarding transgender athletes.
Critics argue that transgender athletes who have gone through male puberty have an unfair advantage due to physical attributes like muscle mass and bone density, and supporters of the new policy believe it will help ensure fairness and safety in women’s sports.
Transgender advocacy groups have raised concerns about the exclusion of transgender women from high-level competitions, arguing that these policies are discriminatory.
Seema Patel, an expert in discrimination in sport, noted that "there is inconsistency in the application of this approach and the effectiveness of a ban in the long-term is not yet clear."
The full details of the ECB’s new policy will be developed over the coming months, with plans to have everything in place before the start of the 2025 domestic season.
