A new annual Women's Emerging Nations Trophy will take place in Thailand this November, featuring the top eight women's associate members.

The tournament will feature the five associate members with women's ODI status - Netherlands, Papua New Guinea, Scotland, Thailand and UAE in addition to the best three teams from the T20I rankings at the recent annual cut off not already included, namely Namibia, Tanzania and Uganda.

Another annual tournament will begin in 2026 in the shape of the Women's Challenge Trophy for the top team in each region not already in the Emerging Nations Trophy as determined by regional qualifiers. Assuming no further regional qualifiers these teams will likely come from this year's regional qualifiers for the 2026 Women's T20 World Cup.

This means that the Americas team will be USA and the Asian team will be Nepal. The European team will be decided next month in the Netherlands with the best team out of Germany and Italy - with Ireland and Netherlands already in higher level tournaments - at the European qualifier. African and EAP qualifiers take place in September.

A currently unnamed tournament will take place in 2027 featuring four full members that miss out on the 2027 Champions Trophy along with the top four of the preceding Emerging Nations Trophy.

The new tournaments are part of the ICC's plans to expand the Women's T20 World Cup to 16 teams from 2030, with the hope that regular cricket - including against the lower ranked full members - will lead to a more competitive tournsament.

Scotland at the Women's World Cup Qualifier
Scotland at the Women's World Cup Qualifier (ICC)

Scotland in particular have been bemoaning their lack of ICC organised international cricket and whilst this structure isn't anywhere near as packed as the men's League 2 and Challenge League tournaments, it does represent a significant shift in women's associate tournaments being organised by the ICC.

Notable by its absence at this stage though are any mentions of ICC organised ODI tournaments for the five teams with ODI status who are still left to organise their own matches and a pathway which currently excludes two regions - Americas and Africa - from even trying to qualify for the World Cup.