The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced new gender eligibility regulations for international cricket following a nine-month consultation process. The new policy prioritizes the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness, and inclusion. As a result, any male-to-female participants who have undergone any form of male puberty will be ineligible to compete in international women’s cricket, regardless of any surgeries or gender reassignment treatments they may have received.
The review, led by the ICC Medical Advisory Committee chaired by Dr. Peter Harcourt, focused solely on gender eligibility for international women’s cricket. Gender eligibility at the domestic level remains the responsibility of each Member Board, and may be influenced by local legislation. The regulations will be reviewed within two years.
ICC Chief Executive Geoff Allardice stated, “The changes to the gender eligibility regulations were the result of extensive consultation and are based on 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.”
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The Chief Executives’ Committee (CEC) approved a plan to accelerate the development of female match officials, including equalizing matchday pay for ICC umpires across men’s and women’s cricket and ensuring that there is one neutral umpire in every ICC Women’s Championship series from January 2024 onwards.
The ICC will start a Time Clock on trial basis for ODIs and T20Is.
– “The bowling team can only take 60 seconds between start of overs. If thrice the time limit of 60 seconds is exceeded, 5 penalty runs will be imposed to batting team”. pic.twitter.com/bIaesSiGer
— CricketMAN2 (@ImTanujSingh) November 21, 2023
The CEC also agreed to introduce a stop clock on a trial basis in men’s ODI and T20I cricket between December 2023 and April 2024. The clock will be used to regulate the time taken between overs. If the bowling team is not ready to bowl the next over within 60 seconds of the previous over being completed, a 5-run penalty will be imposed the third time it happens in an innings.
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Changes to the pitch and outfield monitoring regulations were also approved, including simplifying the criteria against which a pitch is assessed and raising the threshold for when a venue could have its international status revoked from five demerit points to six demerit points over five years.
These changes reflect the ICC’s commitment to fairness, safety, and inclusivity in the sport of cricket.
