More transphobia in sports, with the International Cricket Council becoming the latest sports body to ban transgender players from the elite women’s game if they already went through male puberty.
Justifying its discrimination, the ICC stated that it made the anti-LGBTQIA decision after “extensive scientific review and nine-month consultation” supposedly to “protect the integrity of the international women’s game and the safety of players”.
Explaining the sport’s decision the 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.”
ICC’s previous regulations were based on reducing testosterone levels, but the new rules would be based on the following principles, in order of priority: “protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion”.
The ICC added: “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.”
This new policy is implementable solely to international women’s cricket. Individual countries still have the leeway to have their own policies for the domestic game.
Cricket now joins rugby union, swimming, cycling, athletics and rugby league for imposing anti-transgender policies.
