Trans sport's 'mafia' trains grass-roots cricket staff just weeks after trans women were banned by ECB from professional competitions - as they say coaches shouldn't call players 'lads' or ladies' and claim safety and fairness 'are contextual'

An activist group has claimed trans sportswomen being ‘tall, heavy and strong’ is a myth as they push for women’s grassroots cricket to be more open to players.

Documents distributed in seminars by Gendered Intelligence advise coaches to scrap ‘collective terms’ like ‘lads’ or ‘ladies’ and said that safety and fairness in the game are ‘contextual’.

The controversial group have previously faced criticism for working with children as young as seven years old and rejecting elements of the Cass report, which was commissioned to investigate the scandal-ridden Tavistock children’s gender clinic.

It now transpires they have been called in by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to train staff involved in grassroots cricket across the country.

It came just weeks after the sport’s governing body banned trans women from female professional competitions last October.

An online seminar called Trans & Non-Binary Inclusion in Recreational Cricket was held by the ECB for coaches and figures involved in local teams in December last year, The Telegraph reports.

It said that ‘collective terms’ including ‘boys’ and ‘ladies’ should be sidelined for more general terms like ‘players’ or ‘folks’.

This professed that it is a ‘myth’ that trans women are ‘disproportionately tall, heavy and strong, and dangerous to play with or against’.

Further guidance said that trans women should be allowed to use female changing rooms and toilets.

It added: ‘Neither safety nor fairness are absolute, and both are contextual,” the report added.

‘We need to examine our understandings of what constitutes fairness and what creates safety and apply those understandings to everyone.’

Gendered Intelligence say that sports are wrong to focus on trans women having medical treatment because many only socially transition, and levels of testosterone should not be a barrier to playing sports.

They say: ‘Significant physical diversity is inherently part of grassroots sport and we can recognise trans and non-binary people as part of that diversity.’

But The Family Education Trust’s Lucy Marsh told MailOnline that the use of the group by the ECB is ‘outrageous’.

Documents by Gendered Intelligence, whose head of professional and educational services carried out the training, given out by the ECB after the seminar included one titled Including Trans People and Non-Binary People in Grassroots Sport. Pictured: CEO and Co-Founder Jay (left) and Director of Professional and Educational Services Simon (right)

She said: ‘No sporting body should be taking advice from Gendered Intelligence as it is run by activists who put their ideological agenda above the safeguarding of women and children. The guidance urges grassroots sports clubs to let men and boys self identify onto female sports teams without any regard for the safety of women and girls.

‘The fact that the ECB is taking advice from an organisation which tells children that gender transitioning is ‘always a positive experience’ and encourages children as young as 8 to believe that it’s possible to change sex is outrageous.

‘Women and girls need to be able to play cricket at the grassroots level without worrying about having males in their changing rooms or being injured by playing against a male.

‘Cricket balls can cause injuries so it’s not hard to imagine a girl being seriously hurt by a ball because boys are usually much physically stronger than girls and can hit and throw much harder.

‘Equally parents are not going to want to risk their daughter’s safety if they could end up playing against boys, so this policy will discriminate against girls participating in cricket.’

Transgender women are currently unable to feature in the top two tiers of the new women’s domestic structure or the women’s Hundred after the ruling in October last year.

But The Family Education Trust’s Lucy Marsh told MailOnline that the use of the group by the ECB is ‘outrageous’. Pictured: Stock image of a rainbow above Headingley Stadium, Leeds

The updated transgender policy mirrored the 2023 decision from the International Cricket Council, which banned anyone who has gone through male puberty from taking part in women’s international games.

In prohibiting transgender women from playing in women’s professional domestic cricket, the ECB said it had consulted ‘relevant science and medical evidence’ and considered ‘fairness, safety and inclusion’.

Ms Marsh continued: ‘We urge the ECB to protect female players and use common sense ahead of a misguided inclusion policy.

‘The ECB is displaying a total disregard for women and girl’s grassroots cricket with its trans inclusion policy.

‘Gendered Intelligence has been a vocal critic of the Cass Review’s findings because it believes that children should have unlimited access to ‘gender affirming’ medical treatment. Bearing in mind that the ECB realises that trans identifying men playing in women’s cricket at a professional and semi-professional level is harmful to women, why is it taking advice from GI for its policy on grassroots cricket?

‘It is grossly unfair and discriminatory against women and girls playing at a lower level that they have to compete against men and boys. How are girls and young women keen to play at an elite level supposed to progress in the sport when they are up against males with a natural advantage?

‘They are also being exposed to harm by the ECB through having to share single sex facilities with males as well as risking injury playing against men and boys who can hit and throw the ball much harder.’

MailOnline has contacted Gendered Intelligence and the ECB for comment.