US Edition
England have raised women’s international match fees to the same level as their male counterparts in a significant display of financial backing given men’s payments are on the verge of an increase of their own.
The England and Wales Cricket Board announced on Wednesday that women’s match fees would be made equal with the men with immediate effect, meaning players will be paid approximately £12,500 per Test match, £5,000 per one-day international and £3,500 per T20 international. This comes into force from Thursday’s women’s T20 against Sri Lanka at Hove.
The move comes on the back of a successful women’s Ashes attended by 110,000 fans, and was one of the recommendations of the Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket, which was released earlier this summer and found discrimination in the game to be “widespread”.
In an interview with the BBC, ECB chief executive Richard Gould heralded “the first step” in making the game more equal. It is understood that the ECB are working on what they call “Project Darwin” which ambitiously aims to have equal pay in the Hundred by 2025 (the top bracket for men is currently £125,000 and for women £31,250), and in all domestic cricket by 2028.
The move does not mean men and women earn the same salary from the ECB. The central contract retainers of the men still dwarf those of the women, while the men play so much more Test cricket: they have 15 scheduled next year, whereas the women play at best two a year.
There is a complicating factor. Negotiations have been ongoing this year to adjust men’s payment structures to raise match fees in a bid to prevent players ditching the international game for the franchise circuit. In March, five players pulled out of a white-ball tour of Bangladesh in March to play in the Pakistan Super League because the remuneration was so much better.
While Gould told the BBC on Wednesday that there were “no plans to increase the men’s specific match fees”, it is understood that an agreement was close to being agreed to kick on either 1 October, when England’s next round of contracts starts, or 1 January.
Whether the women’s contracts would rise again in line with the men’s is unclear, but such a move would represent a huge financial outlay for the ECB at a time when money is tight in the game. Gould said he “wouldn’t give a commitment” to women’s fees rising again if the men’s did too.
England have followed India, New Zealand and South Africa have already announced equal match fees in international cricket. Women’s players are earning more than ever before, with Nat Sciver-Brunt paid around £320,000 to play at the Women’s Premier League in India earlier this year.
“It’s mad to look back when I started in 2010, we barely got expenses,” said Heather Knight, the England captain. “So to now be in a position to be professional and earn a decent living from the game is obviously really pleasing. There will be a lot more girls in the side who are younger that will benefit from this a bit more [than me] as I’m in the twilight years of my career. It’s remarkable to see how things have changed.”