The International Cricket Council (ICC) met to discuss some crucial matters and came out of the meeting with some new rules. One new rule that has made a lot of noise on social media is ICC banning transgender players.
The ICC board approved new regulations stating that individuals who have undergone male puberty will not be eligible to participate in women’s international cricket, irrespective of any gender transition, surgeries, or treatments they may have undergone. That means Danielle McGahey who is the first transgender player to feature in international cricket can no longer play the sport professionally.
McGahey underwent a male-to-female transition in 2021, moving from Australia to Canada to play cricket. She recently took part in the Women’s T20 World Cup qualifiers. McGahey announced on Instagram that her cricket career just came to an end following ICC’s ban.
The ICC in a statement said that it was only after a thorough nine-month consultation with stakeholders in the sport, that the new policy has been officially implemented. The board outlined that the policy prioritizes the integrity of the women’s game, emphasising safety, fairness, and inclusion in that order. Additionally, they’ve committed to reviewing these regulations within a two-year timeframe.
ICC CEO Geoff Allardice added: “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 board also took a decision on the terms of suspension of Sri Lanka Cricket. It said that te Sri Lankan cicket team will continue to play in bilateral and ICC events. However, the funding to SLC will be controlled by ICC. Sri Lanka are no more the hosts of the upcoming ICC Men’s U19 World Cup which is to be held in January 2024.
ICC has also take a big decision to stop the matches getting delayed by a long time due to teams taking too much time to bowl their overs. Taking a strict action, the ICC has imposed a five-over penalty if the bowling team fails to start the new over within 60 seconds. The CEC has greenlit a trial run of a stop clock system in men’s ODI and T20I cricket, slated to operate from December 2023 to April 2024. This clock aims to manage the time taken between overs. Should the bowling team fail to initiate the next over within 60 seconds of the previous one’s completion, a 5-run penalty will be levied upon the third occurrence within an innings.