SYDNEY: Top Australian women cricket players could earn more than A$1 million a year with increases from a fresh pay deal topped up by cash earned in India’s Women’s Premier League (IWPL)and The Hundred in England, Cricket Australia said Monday.
The five-year deal includes a headline funding increase of 66 percent for the women, with the player who holds the top tier contract and plays in the Women’s Big Bash League now earning A$800,000 a year.
CA chief executive Nick Hockley said, “I’m particularly pleased this (deal) represents another main step forward in the rise of women’s cricket,”
“Cricket clearly offers the best earning opportunities of any cricket team sport for elite female sportspeople.”
The Memorandum of Understanding concurred between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) included a rise of 25 percent in the minimum and average Cricket Australia contracts for women.
The contracts and retainers would be guaranteed while cricket players are on parental leave, and further payments would be offered to help make up for the lost match fees.
For the men, the number of central contracts has risen from up to 20 to up to 24 annually to account for the number of players required for world matches across the three formats.
Women’s Twenty20 tournaments
The proliferation of lucrative women’s Twenty20 tournaments worldwide was acknowledged in a rise from A$ 2 million to A$ 3 million in the payment pool for Australia’s Big Bash League (BBL).
Hockely add, “We’ve recognised the need to ensure that Australia’s Big Bash League remains highly competitive in a changing world cricket landscape, and we are confident this agreement would help maintain its place at the heart of the Australian summer”
Hockley mentioned the “constructive spirit of partnership” under which talks were conducted with the ACA, starkly contrasting with acrimonious negotiations for the last deal in 2017. Then, Cricket Australia was forced to back down on the attempt to end the revenue sharing model that had underpinned agreement with the players for two decades.
That model has been kept intact for the next few years, with cricket players sharing a total of A$ 634 million throughout the deal with another pool of A$57m to aid performance-related pay.
