Under the new rules, approved by the ICC board on Tuesday, any player who has transitioned from male to female and has been through any form of male puberty may not be allowed to take part in women’s international cricket, irrespective of any surgery or gender reassignment remedy they may have undertaken.
McGahey, a 29-year-old batter, is originally from Australia but moved to Canada in 2020 and underwent a male-to-female medical transition in 2021. In September 2023, she appeared for Canada in the Women’s T20 Americas Qualifier, the pathway tournament to the 2024 T20 World Cup.
McGahey had fulfilled the gender eligibility criteria, which used to be in place then, for male-to-female transition to play international cricket. She has played six T20Is so far, scoring 118 runs at an average of 19.66 and a strike rate of 95.93.
The ICC finalised the new policy following a nine-month consultation process with the sport’s stakeholders. “It is based on the following principles (in order of precedence), protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, equity and inclusion,” the board stated in a release.
ICC CEO Geoff Allardice added: “Inclusivity is incredibly important to us as a sport, but our precedence used to be to give protection to the integrity of the international women’s game and the safety of players.”
For now, the review, which used to be led by the ICC medical advisory committee chaired by Dr Peter Harcourt, relates to gender eligibility for international women’s cricket only.
“The gender eligibility at domestic level is an issue for each and every individual Member board, that could be impacted by native legislation,” the ICC said. “The regulations will be reviewed inside two years.”