Cricket (ICC women's playing conditions)

Overview

Cricket runs on two layers of rules. The Laws of Cricket belong to Marylebone Cricket Club and apply everywhere — see our Laws of Cricket entry. The playing conditions are the ICC's, and they sit on top of the Laws for international matches, adding to or overriding individual Laws.

This page covers women's international cricket. The ICC publishes women's conditions separately from the men's, and they are not a copy with the numbers scaled down. Much is shared word for word; several important things are not, and section 1 sets them out. The men's conditions have their own page.

Checked against the three current ICC documents, quoted where the wording matters:

• ICC Women's Test Match Playing Conditions, effective July 2026
• ICC Women's ODI Playing Conditions, effective July 2026
• ICC Women's T20I Playing Conditions, effective July 2026

These are newer than the men's documents, which date from June and July 2025. Clause numbers below are the ICC's.

1. How the women's conditions differ from the men's

	Women's	Men's
Ball weight	140–151g (4.94–5.31oz)	156–163g
Ball circumference	21.0–22.5cm	22.4–22.9cm
ODI balls	Two new balls all innings, one from each end	Two to over 34, then one
ODI powerplays	One — overs 1–10	Three
ODI fielders out, overs 41–50	4	5
T20I fielders out, overs 7–20	4	5
Boundary	60–70 yards (54.86–64m)	65–90 yards
60-second stop clock	None	Yes

Everything else this check covered — bowler limits, the free hit, review numbers, umpire's call, the pitching rule — is the same in both.

2. The ground

Clause 19.1.3:

no boundary shall be longer than 70 yards (64 meters), and no boundary should be shorter than 60 yards (54.86 metres) from the centre of the pitch to be used.

There must also be at least 3 yards (2.74m) of run-off between the rope and the first solid object — boards, cameras, dugouts, fencing.

3. The ball

Clause 4.1:

The ball, when new, shall weigh not less than 4.94 ounces/140 g, nor more than 5.31 ounces/151 g, and shall measure not less than 8.25 in/21.0 cm, nor more than 8.88 in/22.5 cm in circumference.

Tests use one ball, with a new one available to the fielding captain after 80 overs, as the Laws provide.

ODIs use two new balls for the whole innings, one from each end in alternate overs (clause 4.3.1). This is worth stating because the men's game changed in July 2025 to drop to a single ball after over 34. That change was not made to the women's conditions. Two balls run the full 50 overs.

A match reduced to 25 overs or fewer before the first innings starts uses one new ball per side.

4. Fielding restrictions and the powerplay

The fielding restriction area is the standard 30-yard (27.43m) oval: two semicircles centred on the middle stumps, joined by straight lines. Restrictions apply at the instant of delivery only.

One-day internationals (clause 28.7.2)

Overs	Fielders allowed outside the circle
1–10 (Powerplay 1)	2
11–50	4

There is one powerplay, not three. After the tenth over the limit is four for the rest of the innings, including the final ten — there is no death-overs phase allowing a fifth fielder on the rope.

In a rain-reduced innings, Powerplay 1 shrinks on the published table:

Innings length	Powerplay 1
20–22 overs	4
23–27	5
28–32	6
33–37	7
38–42	8
43–47	9
48–49	10

Twenty20 internationals (clause 28.7)

Overs	Fielders allowed outside the circle
1–6 (Powerplay)	2
7–20	4

5. How much any one bowler may bowl

Format	Limit
ODI	10 overs in an innings (13.9.1)
T20I	4 overs in an innings (13.9.1)
Test	No limit

6. No-balls and the free hit

The delivery after any no-ball — not only an overstep — is a free hit in ODIs and T20Is (clause 21.19.1). If the free-hit delivery is itself a no-ball or a wide, the next ball is a free hit too.

Clause 21.19.2:

For any free hit, the striker can be dismissed only under the circumstances that apply for a No ball, even if the delivery for the free hit is called Wide ball.

So the striker can be out off a free hit: hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, or run out.

The field may not be changed for a free hit unless the striker has changed, or the no-ball was caused by a fielding-restriction breach, in which case only far enough to correct it. The bowler may change her mode of delivery.

There are no free hits in Tests.

7. The Decision Review System

Unsuccessful reviews permitted per innings:

Format	Reviews
Test	3 (clause 3.6.1)
ODI	2 (clause 3.6.1)
T20I	2 (clause 3.6.1)
Super Over	1 per team, regardless of the match

A review that overturns the on-field decision is successful and costs nothing.

Umpire's call

Umpire's Call is the concept within the DRS under which the on-field decision of the bowler's end umpire shall stand … where the ball-tracking technology indicates a marginal decision in respect of either the Impact Zone or the Wicket Zone.

It covers impact as well as the stumps, and it is symmetrical — a marginal reading preserves an out decision exactly as it preserves a not-out.

Pitching is not subject to it. Clause 3.4.4.4: the batter can be out if the ball pitched In Line or Outside Off, "but the batter shall be Not out if the ball pitched Outside Leg." No margin applies.

8. Over rates

There is no 60-second stop clock in any of the three women's documents. The phrases "stop clock", "60 seconds", "electronic clock" and "ready to start each over" do not appear in any of them. If you have seen one used in a women's match, it came from that competition's own regulations.

The T20I conditions set a minimum over rate of 16 overs per hour (clause 12.8.1), calculated by the umpires at the end of each innings with allowances for stoppages.

9. Concussion replacements

Clause 1.2.7 permits a concussion replacement for a head or neck injury sustained in play and diagnosed or suspected by the team's medical representative. The request goes to the ICC match referee, naming a like-for-like replacement from the nominated list submitted before the match. The referee's test is whether the replacement "will not excessively advantage her team for the remainder of the match."

Commonly argued

• Women's ODIs have one powerplay, not three. Four fielders out from over 11 to the end.
• Women's ODIs still use two new balls all innings. The men's over-34 change does not apply.
• There is no stop clock in the women's conditions.
• The ball is lighter and smaller, 140–151g against the men's 156–163g.
• Boundaries are 60 to 70 yards, not up to 90.
• One fewer fielder may be out after the powerplay in both white-ball formats.
• You can be out off a free hit — run out, obstructing the field, or hit the ball twice.
• The women's conditions are the newer documents, dated July 2026.

Where this comes from

The three ICC women's playing conditions documents linked above, downloaded from the ICC's own site and checked clause by clause against each other and against the men's. 290 pages between them.

These are the international conditions. The WPL, the Hundred, the Women's Big Bash and other domestic competitions write their own.

Where this entry and the current ICC document disagree, the document wins. Tell us.