Women’s Cricket
Good Things are happening in Women’s Cricket and we are not complaining. From time and again, we have seen a huge Pay disparity between Men’s and Women’s Cricket. The funding and salaries have a huge gap that is beyond imagination. But since the rise of women’s cricket, we are finally seeing changes, and we are thrilled for them. After India, it the English Board.
The ECB has announced that women’s regional cricket in England and Wales will get a £3.5 million funding boost to the end of 2024. This will assist to improve the average domestic wage to £25,000. It will bring the total number of female professional players to close to 100.
The increase in financing, which follows the BCCI‘s recent declaration. India’s national teams will receive pay equity in match payments. It is another proof of the growing popularity of the women’s game.
Areas of Funding
From November 1, there will be seven professional players paid by the ECB each area. By February 1, 2023, there will be ten professional players per region. Additionally, salaries and capacity have increased, with an emphasis on each region’s ability to provide science and medicine.
There will be 80 ECB-funded professional women’s domestic cricket players by the start of the 2023 season. It will be double the initial number of 40 who were in contract in 2020. It is in addition to the players who are centrally committed to England Women.
The Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy and Charlotte Edwards Cup teams’ salary pot will increase to £250,000 on February 1; as a result, the average wage for a woman playing regional cricket will increase to £25,000.
India Matches up Match Fee for Men and Women
On Thursday, India’s Board of Control for Cricket made history by deciding to support gender equality in the country’s most popular sport. “Pay equality policy” was adopted for contracted Indian women cricketers by BCCI Secretary Jay Shah. Both male and female cricketers will pay the same match cost.
The same match fee will be paid to the Indian women’s cricket team as it is to the men’s team. The cost for a test cricket match will be Rs 15 lakh, an ODI match Rs 6 lakh, and a T20 match Rs 3 lakh, respectively.
The first-ever women’s IPL, which is set to take place in 2023, was also revealed during the most recent Annual General Meeting (AGM) of BCCI.
Earlier in the year, New Zealand continuing its kind image were the first nation to work on equal match fee between Male and Female players. Even though the Central Contracts remain the same in the match fee scenario, it is a big step towards gender equity if not equality.