Telegraph article on letter to ECB

[mcduffy]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/cricket/2024/11/15/ecb-under-pressure-unsafe-transgender-policy-cricket/
This is very heartening!
For those without a sub (I only have one because of their excellent sex-based rights coverage and also, ironically their excellent cricket coverage ) the SEEN in sport network has challenged them on the "wide consultation" and that 79% of volunteers didn't agree with their approach

Thank you for this. The Telegraph has excellent sports coverage and once I got rid of my subscription to the once ethical Guardian, I discovered to my surprise how good it was. And Oliver Brown is relentless in covering all this and exposing the extreme capture of sporting bodies by the anti women organisations.

Does anyone have this without the paywall? Cricket is my daughters sport so I would be very interested to read it.

ECB under pressure over ‘unsafe’ transgender policy in cricket

Click the link then go straight into airplane mode

Oh and if you then click back out of airplane mode you can then read the comments too! 😊

Thanks, I'm not surprised volunteers are concerned!

My daughter is actually capable of playing in the men's divisions because she is exceptional. For most the women's leagues would be ruined if males are allowed in under the name of 'inclusion'.

Also interesting that those who instigated the survey are from KCL and UCL, I thought those two institutions were totally ideologically captured. That's a good sign.

I hope the ECB responds, grass roots cricket only happens because of the goodwill of volunteers.

Thank you for link.

It was a great letter, I think the onus is on ECB to explain it's self now, I look forward to hearing what they have to say. It's unfair for them to dismiss grass roots cricket, (just because they're not making any money from it presumably), the girls and women who play at that level take it just as seriously as any professional and letting men play in the women's game is ruining it for them.

I took out a subscription when it was on offer because there were quite a few articles supporting the GC viewpoint. I held my nose and read a few other pieces and realised they have some very good journalists. Whilst I don't agree with all of their stuff, it's well researched.

I can see why major ideological divisions exits, because my own prejudice of the Telegraph was quite deep and gave me a bit of a jolt.

There's another article in the Telegraph about this

https://archive.ph/eC6KH

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/18/trans-activists-advising-the-ecb-on-gender-grassroot-cricke/

Apparently the ECB are being advised by Gendered Intelligence.

It's a longish article and I've only skimmed it. I'm glad they've revisited it.

It's amusing how quite a lot of posters make assumptions about the DT and then get surprised. I call it the Guardian brainwash. It is unsurpassed for its sports coverage - especially of women's sport - and is relentless (particularly Oliver Brown) in putting the case for fairness in women's sport. It is also a big backer of women in business - women generally actually.

From the article

“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 <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/eC6KH/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/16/samaritans-suspends-volunteer-criticised-trans-activists/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">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”.

“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”

and there it is, not even hidden. Organisations like Gendered Intelligence are just flat out lying about the law

as for the ECB, I genuinely don’t know what to say. I mean did they look at gendered intelligence website before they hired them???

Tweet from Jill Foster on X showing members of the board of Gendered Intelligence and in the following tweet who funds them (includes Comic Relief). Lots of newly peaked people in the replies, Gendered Intelligence have hidden under the radar for far too long when Stonewall and Mermaids were in the spotlight.
https://x.com/JournalistJill/status/1891921256976380016

Wow, the stuff of nightmares.

Honestly their 'Meet the team' page leads to new levels of Everest peaking.

https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/meet-the-team

What the fucking fuck?!?? 😬

Gendered Intelligence have for years offered a paid for mentoring service for schools offering to go in and "mentor trans & non binary" children in schools.

The ethical issues in bringing in a self interested adult to talk to a vulnerable gender confused child in a school are off the scale. Yet they've offered this for years:

https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/services/68-mentoring-in-education

Jfc!

I personally quite like a man in eyeliner and interesting clothes. But every single one of those dudes has an absolutely horrible expression. Giving really creepy, controlling vibes. Shudder.

Working for Gendered Intelligence must be the easiest grift in the world! Turn up; pronoun circle; announce safe space set up in room 3J for anyone triggered; natty little diagrams on a PowerPoint showing people which box they belong in; say a few mantras; colouring time; misrepresent the law; hand out a glossary of special terms; job done with zero need to engage any brain cells.

I don’t know who I’m more embarrassed for 😳

just trying to imagine how much work my organisation would get with the ECB if we all just changed our names to “wombat” or “squeak” and acquired a range of facial jewellery and bizzare hair cuts. Strangely I bet the people they employ to advise them on health & safety or finance are all called everyday boring things and wear suits.

They used to pop up here on fwr if you said their name 3 times whilst looking in a mirror. Not seen them for years though.

This is part of the bio for Rahil (they/them). What does LGBTQIAP+ mean here? Is there a meaning for the P other than the obvious?

"They bring their own experience of being an Asian non-binary person into their work and our passionate about developing support for the LGBTQIAP+ and POC communities".

genderedintelligence.co.uk/meet-the-team

Ha, yes. I mean, unconventional names can be great, and it's not unusual to see one or two. But as you say, it's a bit of an embarrassment of riches on the GI 'meet the team' page, isn't it?!

What a coincidence to find all of them in one office - Hag, Orange, Biff, Blu, Fox, Skip and Stone.

I may have mis-cased Biff; I'm not sure. They're on the page as "biff", but the general mis-grammaring on the page makes it difficult to tell if that's an intentional lower-case 'b'.

This is part of the bio for Rahil (they/them). What does LGBTQIAP+ mean here? Is there a meaning for the P other than the obvious?

Ooh, ooh, miss, I know the answer, miss!

A is for asexual/aromantic, P is for pansexual.

Ace/aro is the currently ultra-fashionable thing.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/02/18/trans-activists-advising-the-ecb-on-gender-grassroot-cricke/

A double page spread in the DT features section this morning reveals Gendered Intelligence is advising the ECB on incorporating women into the grassroots sport.

Above is the online shortened article. Thank you DT for your relentless uncovering of this scandal.

What "wide consultation"? I have been a season ticket holder at Lord's (not MCC member) for about 5 years and have never heard a breath of this. I was right pissed off when a day at one of the Test matches was Pride shoelaces day and all the players wore them. I think it was a couple of years ago, not sure it came back last year.
The Hundred is the franchise competition organised by the ECB which really promotes women's cricket, women's and men's matches played on the same day, big stars from around the world, lots of razzamatazz. They've just sold part of it off to "a consortium of US-based tech billionaires". I wonder if they will have an opinion on men playing in women's cricket. Obviously it's not grass roots but it's very separate to the rest of the cricket calendar and system.