Cricket icon Sachin Tendulkar has praised the International Cricket Council’s latest post-pregnancy return-to-play rules, hailing it as a significant advancement for women’s cricket and athlete well-being. Tendulkar commended the ICC’s efforts to provide better support for female cricketers managing both motherhood and professional sports. The ICC recently introduced the Return to Play Post-Pregnancy Guidelines to assist female cricketers in safely resuming competitive cricket after childbirth.
The guidelines include a six-step pathway, Ready, Review, Restore, Recondition, Return, and Refine, to aid athletes in recovery, medical assessments, training, conditioning, and eventual return to competition. Each player will have a dedicated case manager, typically a doctor or physiotherapist, to oversee medical care throughout pregnancy and the return-to-play process. The ICC advocates for a player-centric approach involving multidisciplinary support teams to provide comprehensive care during pregnancy, recovery, and cricket reintegration.
Moreover, the policy stresses player privacy, affirming that decisions on public pregnancy announcements should be at the player’s discretion without the need for pregnancy testing by member boards. The initiative has garnered widespread approval within the cricket community, especially as more female cricketers opt to start families while actively playing. West Indies leg-spinner Afy Fletcher, who resumed international cricket post-motherhood and is currently competing in the 2026 Women’s T20 World Cup, also endorsed the move, highlighting the opportunity it offers for players to balance family life with cricket aspirations.
The ICC envisions that these guidelines will enable member boards to establish environments where motherhood and elite cricket can coexist harmoniously, empowering women to make informed decisions about their careers and personal lives while remaining active in the sport.
