Transgender athletes in sport: ICC hands down historic ban for women’s international cricket

In a historic ruling, the ICC has declared transgender women are banned from playing any form of women’s international cricket — what will it mean for the sport in Australia?

Cricket Australia (CA) has confirmed it will not follow the lead of the International Cricket Council (ICC) and change its gender policy to ban transgender women from participating in women’s cricket.

The ICC announced on Tuesday a new policy following nine months of consultation with relevant stakeholders that transgender women would not be able to participate in international women’s cricket.

The new gender eligibility rules state 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”.

Game over: Transgender women have been banned from competing in women’s international cricket matches. Picture: AFP

However, with the guidelines for domestic and community-level cricket left up to individual boards, CA reiterated its commitment to inclusion under its guidelines.

“Australian cricket continues to have its own policy in place for domestic cricket which establishes a framework for the inclusion of transgender and gender diverse players balancing considerations such as inclusion and fairness and the wellbeing and safety of athletes,” a CA spokesperson said.

“Our community guidelines prioritise participation and our mission of being a sport for all.”

Those guidelines don’t place any requirements around the age of transition but focus on the level of testosterone. An athlete must demonstrate a concentration of testosterone in serum less than 10 nanomoles per litre continuously for 12 months or more.

That policy at this stage has not had to be applied at the professional level in Australia.

The ICC came to its decision after advice from the ICC Medical Advisory Committee, with the review claiming the new law is designed to protect the “integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion”.

They also confirmed they will re-evaluate the policy in two years.

The decision has already had an impact with Danielle McGahey, the first international transgender women’s cricketer, announcing her international retirement.

McGahey became the first transgender women’s cricketer to take part in an international match in September. The 29-year-old, born in Australia, represented Canada after beginning her medical transition in May 2021. She has played six T20Is, averaging 19.66 across her six innings.

However, McGahey took to Instagram overnight to confirm that her international career is over following the ICC’s decision.

“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,” McGahey said.

“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 and my sponsor.

“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 (sic) 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 or safety of the sport.

“Never stop fighting!”

Danielle McGahey, an Australian-born transgender athlete, has represented Canada in internationals.

The ICC’s previous Gender Recognition Policy, which was set out in February 2017, was in line with the current CA policy that centres around the testosterone levels of players.

Geoff Allardice, the ICC’s Chief Executive, confirmed that the change to the guidelines was initiated as a result of a focus on player safety.

“The changes in 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,” Allardice said.

“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.”

Former Australian captain Alex Blackwell shared her dismay with the ICC’s decision but was grateful to see CA continue to do what it could from a domestic perspective.

“I’m disappointed to see @ICC have banned trans athletes in international cricket,” Blackwell posted on X.

“I believe there are ways to include fairly, however, this takes effort & education. Looking to @CricketAus & @ausport to continue their good work so Australian domestic sports remain truly inclusive.”

Cricket is the latest sport to make major changes to its policy surrounding the involvement of transgender athletes in women’s sports.

World Athletics announced in March that transgender women who had experienced any part of male puberty after age 12 or beyond Tanner Stage 2 (which marks the stage of physical development) would not be eligible to compete under female classification at world competitions.

It echoed a decision by World Aquatics in 2022 to restrict transgender athletes from competing in elite women’s aquatic competitions. An open category was also created for transgender athletes for this year’s World Cup event in Berlin, with no swimmers entering.