Canada’s Danielle McGahey is set to become the first transgender cricketer to play in an official international match.
McGahey has been included in Canada’s squad for a qualifying tournament on the pathway to the 2024 Women’s T20 World Cup in Bangladesh.
The 29-year-old opening batter has fulfilled all of the eligibility criteria the International Cricket Council (ICC) has for male-to-female transgender players before the event in Los Angeles from 4-11 September.
McGahey’s participation comes despite other sports - including athletics, cycling, swimming and both codes of rugby - banning transgender women from taking part in elite women’s competition.
A spokeswoman for the Women’s Rights Network (WRN) - a group which says it seeks to “defend the sex-based rights of women” - said transgender women had a “significant advantage” over athletes whose sex is recorded as female at birth, and called the ICC’s policy “unfair and unsafe”.
McGahey emigrated from Australia to Canada in February 2020, socially transitioned to a woman in November 2020 and started medically transitioning in May 2021.
McGahey told BBC Sport: “I am absolutely honoured. To be able to represent my community is something I never dreamed I would be able to do.” (BBC sport)