A Trans Cricket Club: A Good Idea?
Hi! My name is Billie, and I am a trans cricketer. I have been through a lot as a trans woman, and I think it is time for change. In my previous post, I wrote about the injustice of the ICC’s (International Cricket Council — cricket’s governing body) ban on transgender women playing international cricket. I also shared some of my difficult experiences as a queer cricketer in English cricket. I have also shared a story about an aborted attempt to play for the Harvard Cricket Club in regionals — a day that led to the most amazing, one-in-a-million miracles in the woods South of Boston. I have played cricket since I was a kid, and I can do an average job of pretty much anything on the field. In the past, I truly loved the sport. I hope to restore that love and passion one day.
Thus follows a cunning plan…
Theory of Change
A theory of change is a tool used in human rights strategy to identify the clear goal you want your strategy to achieve and how you will achieve it (tactics).
A Trans Cricket Club will be formed, connecting and building a community of transgender cricket players across the world. There are not many trans cricket players, and so reaching across oceans and cultures is important and necessary. Creating a united trans cricket constituency and bloc will give trans people a greater say and more influence over decisions related to their identity.
The club will be used as a vehicle for transnational transgender solidarity and protest. Through this, substantial pressures will be able to be applied to the ICC, national, and regional cricket bodies to better support, respect, and incorporate the trans community.
The club will create a touring ‘Trans Cricket World XI’ that will play matches across the world, localizing trans solidarity and protest wherever it plays. It will deliberately humanize trans people and raise awareness of the severe trans rights challenges during the tour.
More than a Game
Each exhibition match will take place during the evening in a major city — in the UK, think London, Manchester, Birmingham — and the team will play an invitational side, potentially including other LGBTQ+ sides. During and after the game, trans people will be able to connect with trans-supportive organizations and bodies, including those related to mental health. Through this, trans people will have greater access to the support that they need. There will be opportunities for trans people to get to know each other too, both structured and unstructured. This aspect of the event will help build a stronger and more resilient trans community wherever it plays. Sessions will be held on protests and building power.
The centerpiece of the event will be a concert-party-protest that follows the game and goes late into the night. This will deliberately begin with an explosion and exorcism of trans grief and anger followed by a celebration of trans euphoria and joy. The event must incorporate aspects of protest given the current situation for trans people. The concert will be open to the entire LGBTQ+ community and the wider public, but it will focus on queer music. In an ideal world, big-name trans musicians or musicians who have created trans-coded music will play, as well as local artists.
The entire event will help build a broader trans community beyond cricket and it will make history both within sports and society.
The strategy and theory of change is that by forming a trans cricket team that will play at highly choreographed events, the right-wing media/political/government anti-trans narrative of transgender people being a threat to sport and society will be significantly undermined. It will also promote the creation of a more politically active and resistant trans community that can better challenge anti-trans hate, whilst building substantial trans power. At a more basic level, the team and the event will apply pressure on bodies that have nurtured transphobia and anti-trans rhetoric.
This human rights strategy follows proudly in the footsteps of the likes of OTPOR in Serbia and various historic traveling sports teams of other highly discriminated communities.
This is still in development and it is just an idea — I need more time to think this through in full, and I would love to hear your thoughts! Please feel free to comment and share widely.
Other Thoughts
The World XI will play games of celebration, community, and protest. The trans players will have to be keen to play and participate in the T20 games and proceedings, despite the scrutiny it may invite. For the first major event game, the team would ideally include the two big-name trans cricketers. The teams could also include supportive celebrities, players, and public figures — and sides would, of course, be co-ed. The games could be played against existing (groundbreaking) LGBTQ+ sides such as the Graces (London) or the Unicorns (Birmingham), or against Charity XIs created just for the game. Whilst only one game is envisaged for now, games in London, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Brighton, and Manchester seem like good options. With enough support, the World XI could tour elsewhere in the world — Australia, for example. With each game followed by a trans-party-protest with music, speeches, and queer performance, it is important to reflect on the cricket game as just one (important) part of an evening of trans-supporting and affirming events. The team could play warm-up matches against other sides.
Given the paucity of transgender cricketers (at least known ones), some effort would have to be put into recruitment to find a full team/squad, and funding would have to be found to get them to the UK and to accommodate them. The standard of cricket does not necessarily have to be exceptionally or even good, for it is supposed to be a fun, supportive, relatable social cricket experience for both players and observers. The XI/Club will also create an international pool of trans and LGBTQ+ players, potentially leading to a World LGBTQ+ team. Given the impossibility of training as a world XI before a planned tour, coaching support and practice opportunities from the host cricket club would be valuable and important.
The Trans World XI would:
- Be sporting pioneers and ambassadors for the trans community at a time of widespread anti-trans sentiment.
- Create a safe space and a future for transgender cricketers to exist in.
- Apply pressure on the ICC, and others to do more to encourage, safeguard, and protect trans cricketers
- Create a sporting spectacle that will grow in importance over time.
- Create real history — especially if it is a one-time or long-lasting thing.
- Be an act of resistance at a time when trans existence is threatened.
The Trans / Pride Cricket Game would:
- Be a celebration of queer sports and solidarity.
- Be a historic event.
- Highlight the need for greater trans acceptance in the sport.
- Humanize trans sportspeople, destroying the argument that they are threats.
The Trans / Pride Cricket Carnival-Party-Protest would:
- Create, capture, and crystalize a gender-affirming atmosphere.
- Be a safe space for trans euphoria and dysphoria.
- Be a focal point for trans emotion — be it happy or sad.
- Commemorate and memorialize trans/queer joy and loss.
- Center trans experience.
- Highlight the serious challenges faced by the trans community.
- Promote trans unity and solidarity.
- Raise money for trans causes, including mental health.
- Link trans people to resources that can support them.
- Be fun.
- Mental health will be a central theme across all elements of the game.
Conclusion
The Trans Cricket Club and the Trans World XI are a real opportunity to powerfully promote and defend trans rights in both cricket and society. The World XI will write sporting and queer history in the footsteps of other famous traveling protest teams. This project concept can be as hard-edged and sharp-elbowed as we want it to be in an attempt to drive political change, but at its heart it must remain a project of love for the transgender community wherever it plays, being responsive to their needs and their context.
I hope that one day we will see a history-making Trans World XI walking out to the middle one day soon.
Hello, readers! This is a concept I have been stewing over recently, and I think it might have some promise. I would love to hear your feedback and comments on these ideas, and if there is some consensus of interest I will see if we can put it in motion! I guess that this will probably be too soon for the 2024 season, which is frustrating, but sometimes waiting is no bad thing. If you know any trans cricketers, please point them my way!!! I wrote a short blog of my thoughts on the ICC decision here, and I did an important project on trans mental health here.
