Women were the biggest winners in cricket’s pay on Monday, with an AU$53 million increase over the next five years and a 66 per cent pay rise.
This success will be felt more at home, where the average salary will be AU$151,000 for players with international and WBBL status.
The majority of dual-sport players will also earn six figures for the first time, with minimum government contracts reaching around AU$60,000 and the WBBL’s lowest-paid player earning around AU$20,000.
The game’s salary has also been included in the men’s game, with a touch of AU$2000 paid per day, raising the highest salary in the women’s game.
These figures leave women still in government contracts at 70 percent of their male counterparts, and I believe that a real union can be achieved in future contracts.
“We’re on a journey,” Cricket Australia chief Nick Hockley said. “We have seen a 26 percent increase in player wages, but 66 percent of wages for our female players.
“We’re on the way, we’re not there yet. But we’ve made a lot of progress in closing the gap.”
CA officials and players will focus on trying to improve the game, increasing the WBBL’s salary cap to AU$732,000 in order to retain the best overseas talent.
“Giving players more time to develop themselves and their game, naturally this will help them improve.”
Officials are also predicting that a number of women’s players could spend as much as AU$1 million, when they combine their national salaries, WBBL contracts and overseas contracts.
Although national contracts are well below their male counterparts, the women’s top earners will now earn AU$800,000 in addition to their Australian contracts with the WBBL, while the next six will earn AU$500,000.
“I think we’re going to have a couple of million in the next couple of years,” Australian Cricketers Association chief executive Todd Greenberg said. “And they should because they are the best in the world at what they do.”
