Bowled out: UK girls quit cricket amid concerns over trans competitors

Young girls in the United Kingdom are quitting cricket after the refusal by the national sport’s governing body to ban transgender 'women' from amateur leagues, the British media has reported.

In a recent letter to the English and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), the mother of a young cricketer said girls were “being reduced to tears, demoralised and dropping out of matches” after being forced to play against boys self-identifying as female.

Many argue that transgender 'women' – people who identify as female even though they were born as biological men – should not be allowed to take part in traditionally segregated competitive sports. Transgender 'women' are known to retain significant bodily strength, which gives them an obvious physical advantage over their women competitors.

In addition to sporting fairness, safety concerns also figure prominently in the growing debate over the inclusion of transgender 'women' in female competitions.

The ECB banned biologically male cricketers who self-identify as transgender 'women' from participating in female professional competitions last October. However, the board still allows biologically male cricketers to play women’s cricket at the grassroots level.

The letter referred to a girls’ under-13 cricket competition last summer where two boys identifying as female were included in a team. One 12-year-old girl “cried in the trees” because the presence of biologically male cricketers in her team “scared her, intimidated her and made her feel uncomfortable and worthless,” the letter said.

A public outcry over the participation of trans athletes in women’s competitive games has also shone a spotlight on the intimidation and harassment faced by women who advocate for women-only sports.

In the US, 23 of the 50 states have passed laws restricting transgender athletes’ ability to participate in school sports in accordance with their gender identity.

Even the US House of Representatives passed a bill in 2023 barring transgender 'women' athletes from competing in girls' or women’s sports teams at federally supported schools and colleges.

World Athletics, which is the governing body for sports of athletics like cross-country running, road running and mountain running, decided in 2023 to exclude transgender 'women' from female events to “protect the female category”.

Laurel Hubbard, a weightlifter from New Zealand, became the first openly transgender 'woman' to compete in the Olympics during the Tokyo 2020 Games. Critics said Hubbard held an unfair advantage because she used to compete in men’s competitions before quitting the sport more than a decade ago.

Similarly, US swimmer Lia Thomas became the first openly transgender 'woman' to win a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship in swimming in 2022. However, the sport’s governing body, World Aquatics, barred her from participating in women’s events, including the 2024 Olympics.

World Aquatics said the decision to stop transgender athletes from competing in most elite women’s aquatics competitions was “a major step forward in our efforts to protect women’s sport”.

What does science say?

The main argument against transgender 'women' competing against women athletes is that nature endowed the former with certain physical attributes that give them a competitive advantage. These attributes include larger heart size, more haemoglobin, leaner body mass and larger lung capacity.

“These physiological factors underpin the strength, speed and recovery required to be competitive in most sports, [resulting in] a 10-12 percent performance advantage in running and swimming and a 20 percent advantage in jumping events,” David Handelsman, a world-leading authority on androgen physiology, was quoted as saying.

“Natural male advantages, including bone structure, heart size and lung capacity, are not eliminated by hormonal therapy, especially if the transition is post-pubescent.”

According to sports scientist Ross Tucker, the physiological differences established during puberty can create “significant performance advantages” between men and women.

“When boys reach the age of 13-14, things start to change physically and we see increased muscle mass, bone density; [it] changes the shape of the skeleton, changes the heart and the lung, haemoglobin levels, and all of those things are significant contributors to performance,” he said, adding that transgender 'women' retain advantages even after undertaking hormonal therapy.

A 2022 research paper by Australian physiologist Alison Heather said male physiology cannot be reformatted by estrogen therapy. This is because testosterone drives “permanent effects” through early life exposure, he says.

“Ultimately, the former male physiology of transwoman athletes provides them with a physiological advantage over the cis-female athlete.”

Women athletes want no truck with transgender 'women'

Most female athletes questioned for a 2024 study stated they supported the categorisation of women’s sport by biological sex, rather than gender identity.

Conducted by Manchester Metropolitan and Swansea universities and published in the Journal of Sports Sciences, the research found 77 percent of world-class athletes – meaning those who had taken part in Olympic or World Championship finals – favoured the categorisation of women’s sports by biological sex.

A BBC report from March 2024 said more than 100 elite British sportswomen told the national broadcaster they would be uncomfortable with transgender 'women' competing in female categories in their sport.

At the same time, many of them expressed fears over sharing their opinion publicly because of concerns that they would be seen as discriminatory.

Having transgender 'women' in female categories was like “going back in time and putting women at the bottom of the pile again”, the report said, adding that it created an “unfair playing field” for women athletes.

As for the general public, almost seven in every 10 respondents to a 2023 poll in the US said transgender athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that conform with their birth gender.

Moreover, a clear majority of respondents said they considered changing one’s gender to be “morally wrong”.