Cricket Australia has cleared Anaya Bangar to play women’s community cricket across Australian states and territories, according to multiple reports. The 25-year-old former Mumbai Under-19 cricketer, daughter of ex-India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar, is now eligible for Premier Cricket competitions immediately.
“It is a great day for me, especially after knowing the fact that I can play cricket.”
Anaya Bangar, August 2026
The clearance does not extend to elite cricket. Bangar becomes eligible for the Women’s Big Bash League from March 2027, conditional on maintaining serum testosterone levels below 10 nanomoles per litre for 12 consecutive months.
Cricket Australia’s letter to Bangar stated her elite eligibility requires a blood test upon arrival in the country confirming those levels. This two-tiered system is Cricket Australia’s answer to a question most cricket boards have refused to engage with.
| Level | Status | Condition |
|---|---|---|
| Premier Cricket (community) | Eligible now | Immediate |
| WBBL (elite domestic) | From March 2027 | Testosterone below 10 nmol/L for 12 months |
| International women’s cricket | Banned | ICC policy since November 2023 |
| Indian domestic women’s cricket | No pathway | BCCI has no transgender policy |
The distinction matters. Premier Cricket is competitive club cricket run by state associations, not casual weekend cricket. But it is not the WBBL, and it is not international.
Bangar played junior cricket at Islam Gymkhana in Mumbai from 2018, according to reports. She trained alongside Sarfaraz Khan and Musheer Khan at the Under-19 level.
She has spoken publicly about receiving batting advice from Virat Kohli during sessions with her father. These are not the credentials of someone picking up the game late.
She came out as transgender in 2023. Hormone replacement therapy began in June 2025, and gender-affirming surgery followed in March 2026 in Thailand.
She relocated to Manchester during her transition, playing for Hinckley Cricket Club in Leicestershire. She is currently recovering from surgery and searching for a Premier Cricket club in Australia.
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The Policy Gap
The ICC banned transgender women who experienced male puberty from elite international women’s cricket in November 2023. The ruling replaced an earlier framework that allowed participation based on testosterone levels below 5 nmol/L for 12 months.
Canada’s Danielle McGahey, the first transgender international cricketer, retired immediately after the ban took effect, according to reports. Cricket Australia chose a different route.
Rather than a blanket ban, it created a pathway: community cricket with immediate access, elite cricket with medical conditions attached. No other major cricket board has attempted this distinction.
The BCCI has done nothing, according to reports. Bangar wrote to the board seeking guidance on her eligibility in Indian domestic cricket and received no response.
In June 2025, she submitted an eight-page scientific report documenting the measurable physiological impact of her hormone therapy to both the BCCI and ICC, according to Outlook India. The report was built on data collected during her time at Manchester Metropolitan University.
The silence from Indian cricket’s governing body is not surprising to anyone who understands how the BCCI operates. It has no template for this situation, no committee assigned to it, and no institutional pressure to create one.
Insider Read
Bangar trained in the same Mumbai junior system that produced current India internationals. Islam Gymkhana’s nets, the Kanga League pressure, the intensity of U-19 selection trials. She did not learn cricket in a park.
She learned it in an environment where every session was a contest and every net bowler was trying to get picked. To go from facing bowlers who now play Ranji Trophy and IPL cricket to searching for a community club spot in suburban Australia is a drop that only someone who has been through the junior grind can fully measure.
The technical ability does not disappear. The match awareness stays. But the context changes completely, and the gap between what you know you can do and where the system allows you to do it becomes the hardest part.
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