Only those
Transgender women have been banned from competing in all levels of women’s cricket with immediate effect, the England and Wales Cricket Board has announced.
In an update to its transgender regulations, the ECB said “only those whose biological sex is female” will be able to participate in women’s and girls’ cricket.
It doesn’t get much more tautological than that. Men and boys won’t be able to participate in women’s and girls’ cricket. Well duh: that’s what it says on the tin: women’s and girls’ cricket. Obviously men and boys won’t be able to participate. Yet all this time all these people pretended otherwise. Could it be because women and girls just don’t matter?
Amelia Short, a transgender cricketer for amateur side Lindow, says the ECB should have consulted with transgender players before altering its policy.
Well that’s bullshit, and the BBC should have recognized it as such instead of solemnly including it. There is nothing to consult about. Things for women and girls are for women and girls. The end.
“What the ECB has done is not give us as transgender women a chance to say that there isn’t much advantage going on. We’re not doing an injustice to the women’s game,” Short told BBC Sport.
Ah fuck off. You don’t need a chance to say. You’re not involved. It’s not yours. Go away. Whining about not being consulted is like burglars whining that the people in the house didn’t leave a window open for the burglars. You are not women so get out.
Fiona McAnena, director of campaigns for human rights group Sex Matters, said the ECB’s previous policy was “never coherent” and “indefensible”.
“Now that the UK Supreme Court has said it is lawful to exclude ‘all men, including trans women’, the ECB has done the right thing,” said McAnena.
At least the BBC gave her the last word.
And Jesse James thought he should’ve been consulted before they made laws about robbing banks. “They didn’t give bank robbers a chance to say that there isn’t much advantage going on. We’re not doing an injustice to the investors.”
Although it’s a non contact sport, cricket is a game where longer levers and bigger muscles have an advantage.
Longer arms allow for faster deliveries. The best fast bowlers are the taller ones.
Greater muscle strength allows to ball to be hit further, faster, making fielding harder and the boundaries much more likely. Even the lower order male batters score more fours and sixes than the top level female batters.
A low order male could probably be an opener playing against a female team.
It may not be (usually) player-on-player contact, but the ball and bats can contact players. Men’s bowling (pitching) is harder, and men’s batting (hitting) is a lot harder than women’s. There is still significant opportunity for injury from thrown or batted balls.
There are a number of possible solutions to this problem, including: 1. requiring transgenderists when batting at the crease to wear thick black bags over their heads at all times, to even thing up a bit physically; 2. forbidding transgender players from wearing protective codpieces* at any stage of the game, since a small cushion or the protective gear worn by nontransgenderists (ie females) will do just as well; 3. requiring transgenderists to play with one arm strapped firmly to one side; cf a handicap in golf; 4. etc.
* In cricket, the protective gear for the groin area, specifically designed to shield the genitals from the impact of a cricket ball, is commonly referred to as an ‘abdominal guard’ or a ‘box.’ Other terms used include ‘groin protector,’ ‘ball protector’, or ‘protective cup.’
As a podshaver (cricket bat maker) I would like to point out that when making custom bats I have to always consider the batters’ physical abilities and that is ever apparent in the batters’ playing techniques. The bats’ weight and length are physical characteristics defined by those characteristics of the batters’ physical nature of height and weight and power to swing bats of various weights. Contact sport perhaps not but there are many contributing factors that can endanger a participant.
zoombats, that is a real and under appreciated art.