Australian-born transgender cricketer Danielle McGahey claims the International Cricket Council (ICC) has declared trans women do not belong in the sport, after a tightening of rules around eligibility.
The ICC announced new rules around transgender players on Monday evening, banning anyone who went through puberty as a male from playing in international women’s cricket.
The change in regulations are at odds with Cricket Australia’s rules, and AAP has been told they will have no bearing on any future players’ eligibility for the WBBL or WNCL.
The policy appears to have been prompted by the case of McGahey, who became the first transgender cricketer to take part in an official international match when she featured in a Women’s T20 fixture for Canada against Brazil.
Danielle McGahey (Photo via Instagram)
The Brisbane-born 29-year-old, who played grade cricket as a man in Melbourne, moved to Canada in 2020.
Having transitioned socially, then medically, to a woman she began playing women’s cricket in Canada and was called into the national team in October 2022.
The opening batter went on to play all six of Canada’s matches during the Women’s T20 World Cup Americas region qualifiers event in Los Angeles, to add to national team appearances previously in fixtures which did not hold official ICC status.
Canada came second in the four-team event, failing to qualify, with McGahey making 118 runs at 19.67 with a top score of 48.
“Following the ICC’s decision this morning, it is with a very heavy heart that I must say that my international cricketing career is over,” McGahey posted on Instagram.
“As quickly as it begun, it must now end.
“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 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.”
Transgender athletes have been banned from taking part in elite women’s competitions in other sports such as swimming, cycling, athletics, rugby league and rugby union.
Under the ICC’s previous regulations, which were effective from October 2018 and amended in April 2021, McGahey had satisfied all of the eligibility criteria.
However, following an ICC board meeting, new gender regulations have been announced, which follow a nine-month consultation process with the sport’s stakeholders.
The changes come after Cricket Australia (CA) unveiled what it proclaimed as an “inclusive” policy on transgender athletes in 2019.
Under CA’s rules, no requirements are placed around the age of transition, but rather must demonstrate a concentration of testosterone in serum less than 10 nanomoles per litre continuously for 12 months or more.
Those rules are yet to need to be applied at an elite level.
If they were to in the future, players would still be eligible to compete at domestic level, but are now ineligible for Australian selection unless they meet the ICC regulations.
At grassroots level in Australia, players are still allowed to feature in any club competition which meets their gender identity.
Stuckbetweenindopak
Roar Rookie
Haha.. exactly my response for the general reflection from the comment section. The idea tha men transform to lady gender to play the women's sport at the highest level, not for pride, not for career, but actually to make money????????.. hilarious
DTM
Roar Rookie
You're right it is. However, people do all sorts of things for money in this world - sometimes for not much money! Would I do it? No, but I'm also not a good enough athlete to compete with top level females so I don't have the choice to do it for money. This person made headlines and I'm sure it has caused her some distress. However, if it became accepted (for biological men who identify as women to compete with biological women) then we might see many more cases and the newsworthyness would diminish. This would make the sacrifice less daunting.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
I don't dismiss out of hand the physical genetics argument made by many on here, but I have a lot of trouble believing a lot of men would change genders just to play sport at a higher level. For someone who wasn't true transgender, surely that would be way too big a price to pay?
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
Yes Ed, there are disabled toilets which non-disabled people are allowed to use, as far as I am aware. The problem with a 'man dressing up as a woman' using the male toilets is the risk of assault is also high due to bigotry and out dated attitudes, paranoia etc.
The Knightwatchmen who say Nii
Roar Rookie
It's a valid hypothetical scenario DTM, but it sounds like a massive sacrifice to make just to make some big dollars?
DTM
Roar Rookie
Thanks Piru, I think she actually said 700 - perhaps she was being modest. A true champion - we will never see the likes of again if we allow transgender players to compete against women.
Blink
Roar Rookie
I don't mind transgender at all but why do they transition to play International sport. Unless they are particularly dim they would know the advantages of an exmale playing with females. I think the International breed are basically attempting to cheat while trying to run the moral highground. They're not being forced to stop playing whatever sport; they just cannot do it at International level. Which is fair enough. First females have the likes of Semenya to deal with, and now transgender sports players wanting to cosy up to them and pretend they're not advantaged. They get the fame which so eluded them prior to transition.
DaveJ
Roar Rookie
No evidence for me from watching women’s internationals that any of them have the reaction time or physical coordination to make it at first grade level, let alone first class. But maybe with more practice and over time. Women’s tennis is a case in point - Serena Williams said she couldn’t beat any of the men in top 700, and women’s tennis is much more established over time than women’s cricket, the gap in skill level is much less obvious.
Steven Harris
Women had better pick up their game, they are even losing beauty pagents to men.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Growing up without Chrissie Evert? :shocked: le dadacio il civatore!
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Bobby Riggs was older than me at the time
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
Braasch, ranked 203, who had his training regime described as consisting of cigarettes and lager beat Serena 6-2 without really inputting into the set. He earlier had beaten Venus. He had a stellar career winning nothing much and 'wore oxygen gear to altitude' at #38th ranking. He consistently beat noone of note. He smoked in between sets until it was banned
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
Jeff While I agree Ben's comment was slightly disingenuous, citing the Billie Jean King match is equally so. Riggs was a 55 year old heavy drinker playing BJK who was 29 and in her prime. Neither example posed by you or Ben are hardly endorsements to your respective arguments. A fairer comparison would be in 1992. 40yr old Jimmy Connors played 35yr old Martina Navratilova under rules highly favourable to Nav (the doubles court were her sidelines, and Connors was only allowed one serve per point) and Connors still won comfortably.
DTM
Roar Rookie
there are multiple cases in the USA of attacks on women by men (either actually transgender or posing as transgender) in women's toilets. Of course, there are unisex toilets everywhere but given the choice, women will not go in them (and certainly not young girls without a mother present. I may be bigoted, I'll accept that criticism but it is not "perfectly fine".
piru
Roar Rookie
And if the Australian men’s team played against the Kenyan men’s team, would we similarly discover why cricket is segregated by sex? Do you see why your argument holds no weight? And if the Kenyan men played against the Kenyan women?
piru
Roar Rookie
“Serena Williams wouldn’t have been ranked in the top 500 men when she was at her peak.” Hmmm…. Jeff this was Serena's own judgement - I'd link it but Roar seems to delete my comments if they contain any links
piru
Roar Rookie
And then we have comments like women can’t come close to gripping the ball in their fingers like men(?!). No one made that comment, stop strawmanning as you have been making good arguments. I said men in general have better grip strength - that's just true. And that men naturally have better hand-eye coordination. Beggars belief. Men (in general) do have better hand eye co-ordination - it doesn't "beggar belief", it's researched fact. **https://www.webmd.com/brain/features/how-male-female-brains-differ** Men have stronger connections between brain areas for motor and spatial skills. That means males tend to do a better job at tasks that need hand-eye coordination and understanding where objects are in space, such as throwing a ball or hammering a nail. Here's another one, a bit more verbose **https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-68069-0** In summary, the current study provides clear evidence of a difference in visuomotor processing between males and females. Our results show that this male advantage does not reside in a more refined gaze strategy, or more sophisticated hand movements, but rather in a faster decisional process linking visual information of the target with forthcoming hand actions.
Ed Flanders
Roar Rookie
I disagree with all of that DTM. That's stereotyping and reaching for some extraordinarily bigoted comments. The toilet comment is crap. Unisex toilets exist everywhere. It's perfectly fine.
DTM
Roar Rookie
The safety aspect is very important. Not just for the sport debate but for general society too. There have been multiple cases where a person transitioning has gone into the female restrooms and physically assaulted a female. Unfortunately, men assault women all around the world in various places but restrooms are generally considered safe. To allow biological men into women's restrooms creates opportunities for men wanting to harm women. If you then extrapolate that a little to a pedophile dressing up as a woman and getting access to the girl's toilets, you can imagine the potential problems. This issue doesn't really affect men going about their normal lives. However, it has potential to cause great stress and anxiety for women of all ages. I can't believe our female leaders are not all shouting from the roof tops that this has to stop.
Doctordbx
Roar Rookie
Common sense was perhaps the victor but it didn't even get a bat.