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As the opening ball hurtled towards her with a power and speed that could only come from a male player, Lucy’s first thought was for the safety of the young female cricketers on the pitch.
The captain of a local team from Hampshire, she had been excited to have girls aged 12 to 15 in her line-up, all of whom were getting the chance to “play up” against adult opponents and improve their game.
But what Lucy had not bargained for was that they would be facing, on the opposing team, a 5ft 10in player, aged over 40, who was born male but identified as a woman.
“Immediately as they started to bowl I thought ‘Oh god,’” Lucy says, as she recalls what unfolded at the match last May.
“They were so powerful and a very good player. I thought my girls are really going to struggle with this.”
Lucy, 39, was so fearful that one of the girls might be injured by the sheer pace and force at which the balls were being bowled by the trans player, she initially insisted that only she should bat.
“If they had been hit by that ball they would have got injured,” she says.
The game became even more nerve-racking when the trans player stepped up to the crease to bat. The player “hit the ball so hard it nearly took out one of my players who is 14 years old,” says Lucy.
Fortunately, she says, the male-born trans woman cricketer was bowled out early after hitting her own wicket.
“But, afterwards, the umpire said to me if that player hadn’t gone off he would have ended the match because it wasn’t safe.”
Lucy is not alone in worrying about official rules that permit biological males who identify as female to play in what were previously single-sex games.
There has been growing criticism across the country from female players, parents and cricketing officials of the transgender policy introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – the sport’s governing body. In a long-awaited update published last October, the ECB banned transgender women from its new professional and semi-professional competitions. But the rules continued to allow trans women to play in women’s teams at grassroots level.
Now it transpires that, weeks after the row first surfaced last autumn, the ECB organised training for staff involved in grassroots cricket across the country, by a trans activist group, Gendered Intelligence.
The group opposed last year’s ban by the Government of the sale and supply of puberty blockers to under-18s and has caused controversy by giving seminars in schools to children as young as four on changing gender.
An online seminar, Trans & Non-Binary Inclusion in Recreational Cricket, was held by the ECB on Dec 4. The advice given to coaches and other figures involved in grassroots cricket included avoiding the use of “collective terms” such as “boys” and “ladies” and considering “alternatives e.g. ‘players’, ‘team’, ‘everyone’, ‘folks’.” The presentation also stated: “Assume people choose the facilities that are the best fit for them.”
Further guidance, by Gendered Intelligence, which was distributed by the ECB following the seminar, included a document entitled Including Trans People and Non-Binary People in Grassroots Sport, which claimed it is a “myth” trans women are “disproportionately tall, heavy and strong, and dangerous to play with or against”.
“Neither safety nor fairness are absolute, and both are contextual,” the report added.
“We need to examine our understandings of what constitutes fairness and what creates safety and apply those understandings to everyone.”
It further advised that trans women should be allowed to access female facilities such as changing rooms and toilets, while reiterating the point that clubs should be encouraged to practice “sharing pronouns” and avoid terms such as “ladies” and “lads”.
Gendered Intelligence, whose head of professional and educational services delivered the training, advises that sports often wrongly focus on whether transgender women have had medical treatment to change gender and have reduced their testosterone when many trans people only socially transition.
At the same time, the group warns against using testosterone levels as an eligibility criteria to decide whether transgender players should be allowed to play in women’s sporting categories as they say this acts as a barrier to their participation.
Its guidance states: “Significant physical diversity is inherently part of grassroots sport and we can recognise trans and non-binary people as part of that diversity.” Gendered Intelligence did not respond to questions from The Telegraph.
To critics of the ECB’s approach, the use of what is viewed as a highly partisan group to provide training on gender issues is further evidence that cricket’s governing body is failing to listen to concerns about the fairness and safety of women’s cricket.
The ECB receives millions of pounds in public funding. About 1 per cent of its annual revenue of some £300 million comes from Sport England, a quango sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Last year the Conservative government announced that £35m would be given to the ECB to inject into grassroots cricket, although that funding was put on hold by Labour in the autumn.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at the Sex Matters campaign group, says: “Why is a sporting body listening to an activist organisation that recommends letting men access women’s changing rooms and play in women’s teams?”.
While cricket involves no contact between players, those inside the sport say there are very real dangers and a deep unfairness in pitting women and girls against trans players who are biologically male – namely that they have physical advantages that often enable them to bat or bowl faster and harder than females. It is for this reason that similar rows have previously engulfed swimming and cycling.
Such concerns have been pushed into even sharper focus by the fact that, from the age of 12 or 13, girls can “play up” in adult games so in theory could be facing much older trans women under the ECB’s policy.
The Telegraph has received numerous testimonies from players, parents and cricketing officials voicing their opposition to allowing biological males who identify as women or girls to play in female-only matches.
A young female player who has faced a 6ft 4in trans player, Maxine Blythin, in a women’s game spoke of her fear that girls are now potentially losing places in elite cricket to rivals who are born male.
The player, who stands at 5ft 5in, asked not to be named but described her encounter with Blythin, 30.
“This person was very imposing,” she remembers.
“During the warm-ups, you start seeing them bowling and then hitting in the nets, then you see this is a biological man and the difference in power.”
She continued: “This was a competitive performance game. You’ve spent years aiming to play games like this - then the first time you turn up there is essentially a man playing.
“It’s very demoralising to see girls who want to end up in the England women’s squad losing opportunities because they’re having to play against players that they weren’t expecting to play against.”
Blythin, who transitioned as a teenager, told Sky Sports in 2019: “I was born with a condition that meant I never had any real levels of testosterone, which meant I never went through any form of male puberty.
“That condition means I’m eligible to play women’s sport at any level, in any sport, naturally.
“A lot of the debate that’s been going on and around doesn’t actually apply to myself.”
A mother of a 13-year-old girl says her daughter is likely to give up cricket if the ECB does not make changes to its trans policy.
“My concern is that it’s always the boys who are identifying into the girls game and women have fought very hard over the years for single-sex sport, because of course girls and women are physically different to men in sport.
“So it seems to me to be unfair and unsafe to have boys/men being part of the women’s games.”
The ECB says its decision to exclude grassroots cricket from its trans ban last October was the result of an “extensive consultation” which considered the interaction between “fairness, safety and inclusion”.
However, the move was immediately condemned by critics who said it ensured safety and fairness for 300 professional women, but not for the 33,000 amateur female cricketers across the country.
The ECB has attempted to defend its decision by saying that the safety of women and girls in grassroots cricket was covered by a “Disparity Policy” that it introduced in 2023.
This policy states that, where there is concern about the safety or well-being of players in grassroots matches with a “disparity” between participants, then cricket officials should take steps such as “requesting that a stronger player exercise caution” or requiring protective equipment be worn.
But those involved in women’s cricket have condemned these guidelines as unworkable in practice.
A case in point is the Hampshire team’s cricket match, during which the captain, Lucy, recalled how those present dared not question the trans player’s strength or make any reference to the fact they were biologically male for fear of being accused of transphobia.
“No-one knew what to do,” says Lucy.
“This player had been told their ability was too much for a higher league, yet they still played in our match.
“But you can’t say anything or you will be labelled prejudiced, which I’m absolutely not.
“The girls kept asking me: ‘Is that a man?’ – as there was no mistaking their sex at birth.
“But I literally said ‘We can’t talk about that’, although that’s very difficult when you’ve got 12 and 13-year-olds asking you questions.”
The Gendered Intelligence training, which emphasises the risk of offending trans players with poor choice of language, might do little to ease those concerns.
A county cricket board member employed by the ECB – who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity – is equally sceptical, agreeing that it is “totally unrealistic” to expect volunteer umpires to impose the “disparity policy” rules on trans players.
She says: “So if you’re at a match and you turn up to see that the opposition has got what looks like a man on the team, it is very difficult, particularly in today’s climate, to go up to the opposition and say: ‘I’m sorry, but we know that’s a man so he can’t play’.
“Or, ‘That person’s going to be too strong, so they can’t play’. It could turn very unpleasant.”
Yet those who have gone to the ECB about their concerns say the body has refused to entertain the idea of revising its policy.
In addition, questions have been raised about how truly “extensive” the ECB’s consultation on this issue was.
One mother who contacted the ECB to ask exactly who and how many people they had consulted with says she was met with a flat refusal to give this information.
The campaign group SEEN in Sport says the ECB also refused to provide them with details of the consultation after a survey of grassroots cricket volunteers found 79 per cent were opposed to biological males participating in the female category in both amateur and professional events.
Su Wong, from SEEN in Sport, says: “Among the many officials, county board members, coaches, parents, players and volunteers from all over the UK who have communicated with us, we remain unaware of who was consulted.”
An ECB spokesman says: “We want everyone to feel included and welcomed into our sport. We took considerable time and consultation on recent updates to our Transgender Participation Policy which considered the interaction between fairness, safety and inclusion with equal value.
“The policy includes safeguards to manage disparity and ensure safety. The Disparity Policy has been updated for the 2025 season, and we will be providing additional training for umpires on its application.
“It is important that any club, league or cricket board that has a safety concern should report it to an ECB Safety Panel so that the situation can be formally reviewed and addressed.
“We are not aware that any of the claims regarding safety in this article have been reported to an ECB Safety Panel, which would consider an application while keeping confidential all information presented or submitted as part of the application process.”
Sharron Davies, the former Olympic swimmer, says the Government should force the ECB’s hand if it continues to ignore demands to extend the ban on trans women competing in female matches to grassroots cricket.
Davies, who has continually spoken out on the importance of keeping women’s sport single-sex, said: “It’s so disappointing that the ECB won’t listen to women and girls who are telling them there is a serious problem here.
“I hear from distraught parents worried about their girls facing male fast bowlers and powerful batting. It’s just not fair and sometimes it’s not safe. If the ECB won’t listen then I think the Government should step in and make them sort this out.”
McAnena adds: “The message to women and girls from the ECB is that the feelings of men who identify as women come first.
“Any national governing body that genuinely wanted to promote female participation would listen to the women begging for this to be stopped.”
As the opening ball hurtled towards her with a power and speed that could only come from a male player, Lucy’s first thought was for the safety of the young female cricketers on the pitch.
The captain of a local team from Hampshire, she had been excited to have girls aged 12 to 15 in her line-up, all of whom were getting the chance to “play up” against adult opponents and improve their game.
But what Lucy had not bargained for was that they would be facing, on the opposing team, a 5ft 10in player, aged over 40, who was born male but identified as a woman.
“Immediately as they started to bowl I thought ‘Oh god,’” Lucy says, as she recalls what unfolded at the match last May.
“They were so powerful and a very good player. I thought my girls are really going to struggle with this.”
Lucy, 39, was so fearful that one of the girls might be injured by the sheer pace and force at which the balls were being bowled by the trans player, she initially insisted that only she should bat.
“If they had been hit by that ball they would have got injured,” she says.
The game became even more nerve-racking when the trans player stepped up to the crease to bat. The player “hit the ball so hard it nearly took out one of my players who is 14 years old,” says Lucy.
Fortunately, she says, the male-born trans woman cricketer was bowled out early after hitting her own wicket.
“But, afterwards, the umpire said to me if that player hadn’t gone off he would have ended the match because it wasn’t safe.”
Lucy is not alone in worrying about official rules that permit biological males who identify as female to play in what were previously single-sex games.
There has been growing criticism across the country from female players, parents and cricketing officials of the transgender policy introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) – the sport’s governing body. In a long-awaited update published last October, the ECB banned transgender women from its new professional and semi-professional competitions. But the rules continued to allow trans women to play in women’s teams at grassroots level.
Now it transpires that, weeks after the row first surfaced last autumn, the ECB organised training for staff involved in grassroots cricket across the country, by a trans activist group, Gendered Intelligence.
The group opposed last year’s ban by the Government of the sale and supply of puberty blockers to under-18s and has caused controversy by giving seminars in schools to children as young as four on changing gender.
An online seminar, Trans & Non-Binary Inclusion in Recreational Cricket, was held by the ECB on Dec 4. The advice given to coaches and other figures involved in grassroots cricket included avoiding the use of “collective terms” such as “boys” and “ladies” and considering “alternatives e.g. ‘players’, ‘team’, ‘everyone’, ‘folks’.” The presentation also stated: “Assume people choose the facilities that are the best fit for them.”
Further guidance, by Gendered Intelligence, which was distributed by the ECB following the seminar, included a document entitled Including Trans People and Non-Binary People in Grassroots Sport, which claimed it is a “myth” trans women are “disproportionately tall, heavy and strong, and dangerous to play with or against”.
“Neither safety nor fairness are absolute, and both are contextual,” the report added.
“We need to examine our understandings of what constitutes fairness and what creates safety and apply those understandings to everyone.”
It further advised that trans women should be allowed to access female facilities such as changing rooms and toilets, while reiterating the point that clubs should be encouraged to practice “sharing pronouns” and avoid terms such as “ladies” and “lads”.
Gendered Intelligence, whose head of professional and educational services delivered the training, advises that sports often wrongly focus on whether transgender women have had medical treatment to change gender and have reduced their testosterone when many trans people only socially transition.
At the same time, the group warns against using testosterone levels as an eligibility criteria to decide whether transgender players should be allowed to play in women’s sporting categories as they say this acts as a barrier to their participation.
Its guidance states: “Significant physical diversity is inherently part of grassroots sport and we can recognise trans and non-binary people as part of that diversity.” Gendered Intelligence did not respond to questions from The Telegraph.
To critics of the ECB’s approach, the use of what is viewed as a highly partisan group to provide training on gender issues is further evidence that cricket’s governing body is failing to listen to concerns about the fairness and safety of women’s cricket.
The ECB receives millions of pounds in public funding. About 1 per cent of its annual revenue of some £300 million comes from Sport England, a quango sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Last year the Conservative government announced that £35m would be given to the ECB to inject into grassroots cricket, although that funding was put on hold by Labour in the autumn.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns at the Sex Matters campaign group, says: “Why is a sporting body listening to an activist organisation that recommends letting men access women’s changing rooms and play in women’s teams?”.
While cricket involves no contact between players, those inside the sport say there are very real dangers and a deep unfairness in pitting women and girls against trans players who are biologically male – namely that they have physical advantages that often enable them to bat or bowl faster and harder than females. It is for this reason that similar rows have previously engulfed swimming and cycling.
Such concerns have been pushed into even sharper focus by the fact that, from the age of 12 or 13, girls can “play up” in adult games so in theory could be facing much older trans women under the ECB’s policy.
The Telegraph has received numerous testimonies from players, parents and cricketing officials voicing their opposition to allowing biological males who identify as women or girls to play in female-only matches.
A young female player who has faced a 6ft 4in trans player, Maxine Blythin, in a women’s game spoke of her fear that girls are now potentially losing places in elite cricket to rivals who are born male.
The player, who stands at 5ft 5in, asked not to be named but described her encounter with Blythin, 30.
“This person was very imposing,” she remembers.
“During the warm-ups, you start seeing them bowling and then hitting in the nets, then you see this is a biological man and the difference in power.”
She continued: “This was a competitive performance game. You’ve spent years aiming to play games like this - then the first time you turn up there is essentially a man playing.
“It’s very demoralising to see girls who want to end up in the England women’s squad losing opportunities because they’re having to play against players that they weren’t expecting to play against.”
Blythin, who transitioned as a teenager, told Sky Sports in 2019: “I was born with a condition that meant I never had any real levels of testosterone, which meant I never went through any form of male puberty.
“That condition means I’m eligible to play women’s sport at any level, in any sport, naturally.
“A lot of the debate that’s been going on and around doesn’t actually apply to myself.”
A mother of a 13-year-old girl says her daughter is likely to give up cricket if the ECB does not make changes to its trans policy.
“My concern is that it’s always the boys who are identifying into the girls game and women have fought very hard over the years for single-sex sport, because of course girls and women are physically different to men in sport.
“So it seems to me to be unfair and unsafe to have boys/men being part of the women’s games.”
The ECB says its decision to exclude grassroots cricket from its trans ban last October was the result of an “extensive consultation” which considered the interaction between “fairness, safety and inclusion”.
However, the move was immediately condemned by critics who said it ensured safety and fairness for 300 professional women, but not for the 33,000 amateur female cricketers across the country.
The ECB has attempted to defend its decision by saying that the safety of women and girls in grassroots cricket was covered by a “Disparity Policy” that it introduced in 2023.
This policy states that, where there is concern about the safety or well-being of players in grassroots matches with a “disparity” between participants, then cricket officials should take steps such as “requesting that a stronger player exercise caution” or requiring protective equipment be worn.
But those involved in women’s cricket have condemned these guidelines as unworkable in practice.
A case in point is the Hampshire team’s cricket match, during which the captain, Lucy, recalled how those present dared not question the trans player’s strength or make any reference to the fact they were biologically male for fear of being accused of transphobia.
“No-one knew what to do,” says Lucy.
“This player had been told their ability was too much for a higher league, yet they still played in our match.
“But you can’t say anything or you will be labelled prejudiced, which I’m absolutely not.
“The girls kept asking me: ‘Is that a man?’ – as there was no mistaking their sex at birth.
“But I literally said ‘We can’t talk about that’, although that’s very difficult when you’ve got 12 and 13-year-olds asking you questions.”
The Gendered Intelligence training, which emphasises the risk of offending trans players with poor choice of language, might do little to ease those concerns.
A county cricket board member employed by the ECB – who spoke to The Telegraph on condition of anonymity – is equally sceptical, agreeing that it is “totally unrealistic” to expect volunteer umpires to impose the “disparity policy” rules on trans players.
She says: “So if you’re at a match and you turn up to see that the opposition has got what looks like a man on the team, it is very difficult, particularly in today’s climate, to go up to the opposition and say: ‘I’m sorry, but we know that’s a man so he can’t play’.
“Or, ‘That person’s going to be too strong, so they can’t play’. It could turn very unpleasant.”
Yet those who have gone to the ECB about their concerns say the body has refused to entertain the idea of revising its policy.
In addition, questions have been raised about how truly “extensive” the ECB’s consultation on this issue was.
One mother who contacted the ECB to ask exactly who and how many people they had consulted with says she was met with a flat refusal to give this information.
The campaign group SEEN in Sport says the ECB also refused to provide them with details of the consultation after a survey of grassroots cricket volunteers found 79 per cent were opposed to biological males participating in the female category in both amateur and professional events.
Su Wong, from SEEN in Sport, says: “Among the many officials, county board members, coaches, parents, players and volunteers from all over the UK who have communicated with us, we remain unaware of who was consulted.”
An ECB spokesman says: “We want everyone to feel included and welcomed into our sport. We took considerable time and consultation on recent updates to our Transgender Participation Policy which considered the interaction between fairness, safety and inclusion with equal value.
“The policy includes safeguards to manage disparity and ensure safety. The Disparity Policy has been updated for the 2025 season, and we will be providing additional training for umpires on its application.
“It is important that any club, league or cricket board that has a safety concern should report it to an ECB Safety Panel so that the situation can be formally reviewed and addressed.
“We are not aware that any of the claims regarding safety in this article have been reported to an ECB Safety Panel, which would consider an application while keeping confidential all information presented or submitted as part of the application process.”
Sharron Davies, the former Olympic swimmer, says the Government should force the ECB’s hand if it continues to ignore demands to extend the ban on trans women competing in female matches to grassroots cricket.
Davies, who has continually spoken out on the importance of keeping women’s sport single-sex, said: “It’s so disappointing that the ECB won’t listen to women and girls who are telling them there is a serious problem here.
“I hear from distraught parents worried about their girls facing male fast bowlers and powerful batting. It’s just not fair and sometimes it’s not safe. If the ECB won’t listen then I think the Government should step in and make them sort this out.”
McAnena adds: “The message to women and girls from the ECB is that the feelings of men who identify as women come first.
“Any national governing body that genuinely wanted to promote female participation would listen to the women begging for this to be stopped.”
