The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) will ban transgender women from playing at the elite level of women’s domestic cricket from 2025.

Any player who has reached male puberty will not be eligible to appear in the top two tiers of women’s football.

The new regulations will also apply to the women’s competition The Hundred, but transgender women will be eligible to play in the third tier of the national structure, which traditionally includes lower-tier counties, and recreational cricket.

This follows the International Cricket Council’s (ICC) decision in November 2023 to ban transgender women who have reached male puberty from playing in women’s international matches.

The ECB said it carried out “extensive consultation” and considered the interplay between “fairness, security and inclusion” before reaching a conclusion.

“Having considered the different views gathered during the consultation, as well as during the consultations carried out in 2023, as well as the relevant scientific and medical evidence, the ECB has decided that from 2025 it will adopt the same approach than the ICC for women’s professional domestic cricket,” the ECB said.

“This brings consistency, given that one of the main objectives at the top end of the domestic structure is to produce international players.”