LONDON: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Thursday announced that it would “batsman” to the gender-neutral term “batter” in its playing conditions starting from this month’s T20 World Cup.
Last month, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the sole authority on the laws of the game, announced it would be replacing the word ‘batsman’ with ‘batter’ in the Laws of Cricket to stress the importance of the women’s game. That change will now be reflected across all ICC playing conditions going forward.
The ICC said over the past four years it has been moving away from the word ‘batsman’, with ‘batter’ implemented regularly in commentary and across the organisation’s channels.
The body’s acting CEO Geoff Allardice said the MCC’s decision to move to ‘batter’ in the laws of the game was one they ‘welcomed’. “This is a natural and perhaps overdue evolution of our sport and now our batters are gender-neutral in the same way as bowlers, fielders and wicket keepers,” he added.
Geoff Allardice further said it’s a small change but one that will have a significant impact on cricket being viewed as a more inclusive sport. For ICC Hall of Famer and former Australia star Lisa Sthalekar, the move to ‘batter’ is a simple but important one.
The preliminary round matches of the men’s T20 World Cup will start on Oct 17 in United Arab Emirates and Oman. Women’s cricket will also feature at the Commonwealth Games for the first time in 2022 in Birmingham, England.
England won the 2017 women’s World Cup final in front of a capacity crowd at Lord’s while the women’s World T20 final between Australia and India in 2020 attracted more than 80,000 to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in increasing signs of popularity of the women’s game.
