Transgender athletes banned from women's cricket as ICC release statement explaining decision
Trans news: Transgender athletes are now banned from cricket after the ICC made the decision
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The International Cricket Council (ICC) have decided to ban men who transition to become women from playing in the sport.
Those who are assigned male at birth will not be able to perform in the sport at the highest level.
It follows a nine-month consultation process with the sport's stakeholders.
A 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.
Trans news: The ICC have shed light on their decision to ban transgender athletes from cricket
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"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 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.”
The ICC also confirmed they would be suspending Sri Lanka from their events for 'breaching its obligations as a member.'
"The International Cricket Council (ICC) Board met today and confirmed the terms of the suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC)," they said.
"After hearing representation from SLC, the ICC Board decided that Sri Lanka can continue to compete internationally both in bilateral cricket and ICC events after being suspended recently for breaching its obligations as a Member in particular the requirement to manage its affairs autonomously and without government interference.
"However, funding to SLC will be controlled by the ICC and the ICC Board confirmed Sri Lanka will no longer host the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024, which will now be held in South Africa."
"However, funding to SLC will be controlled by the ICC and the ICC Board confirmed Sri Lanka will no longer host the ICC U19 Men’s Cricket World Cup 2024, which will now be held in South Africa."
Users on X have reacted to news of the ban on transgender athletes, with one saying: "Wokeism peak in cricket."
A second said: "Well, it's just common sense."
A third opined: "Not sure why it took so long but it’s the correct decision."
The ICC have suspended Sri Lanka for breaching their guidelines
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Others, however, have condemned the ICC.
"Because banning a marginalized group is definitely the solution to all the issues plaguing women's cricket. Bravo, ICC, bravo!" said a sarcastic user.
"That's me not playing the cricket then... Honestly, these anti trans things really are a nonsense," said a second.
And a third stated: "They've just banned transgender women from playing cricket. There's only two who play at county level in the country."
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