Cricket chiefs ban players born as men from international women's cricket

The ICC has banned players born as men from playing international women's cricket.

In a statement released on Tuesday morning, the governing body concluded that they had made the decision following a nine-month consultation process to protect the safety of female players.

The statement read: 'The new policy is based on the following principles (in order of priority), protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion, and this means 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, whilst 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.'

ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice added: '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.

Cricket joins athletics, cycling, swimming and both rugby codes in banning transgender women from taking part in elite women's competitions at international level.

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