Women players benefit most in Cricket Australia’s new $634m pay deal

Guardian sport and Australian Associated Press
Sun, 2 April 2023 a

Photograph: Steve Bell/Getty Images

The majority of women’s cricketers on minimum contracts will earn more than $100,000 a year after Cricket Australia and the players’ union announced a landmark $634m pay deal on Monday.

CA and the Australian Cricketers’ Association on Monday revealed details of a new five-year memorandum of understanding that will see professional women players share $133m – an increase from $80m in the previous agreement – and benefit from a 66% increase in payments.

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Under the new deal, minimum and average CA women’s contracts will increase by 25%, while the number of contracts will increase from 15 to 18. Domestic players who do not play for Australia, who play both WNCL (50 over) and WBBL (T20) formats, can earn on average $151,019 annually, inclusive of match fees.

This makes them on average the highest-paid female players of team sports in Australia, with its nearest competitor being Super Netball where the minimum salary is $43,000 with no additional match payments. The AFLW minimum wage sits at close to $40,000, while NRLW is $30,000 and A-League Women’s is $25,000.

The WBBL salary cap will also increase to $732,000 per year in a bid to keep pace with the women’s Hundred in England, India’s WPL and other franchise leagues.

“Cricket now clearly offers the best earning opportunities of any team sport for elite female sportspeople,” CA CEO Nick Hockley said.

“I am particularly pleased this MOU represents another major step forward in the rise of women’s cricket with significant increases in remuneration for the inspirational role models of the world champion Australian women’s team and the WBBL who are driving substantial growth in female participation.”

Centrally-contracted Australian male players will have their pay increase by 7.5% to an average of $951,000 before match payments, while the squad will increase to 24 players.

At a domestic men’s level, more significant changes are coming. The men’s BBL salary cap will rise from $2m to $3m. That will allow the league’s top earners to be paid up to $420,000, with CA desperate to keep and attract new top-line talent. It comes after officials made the competition a priority last season, and agreed to reduce the number of games from 14 for each team to 10 for 2024-25 at the latest.

“We have recognised the need to ensure that the BBL remains highly competitive in a changing global cricket landscape,” Hockley said. “We’re confident this agreement will help maintain its place at the heart of the Australian summer.”

Overall, the changes represent a 26% pay rise for players across the sport, with the deal the first done between Hockley and ACA counterpart Todd Greenberg.

“There is enormous capacity for growth right across the women’s game, as well as the BBL, both of which we believe have enormous untapped potential,” Greenberg said. “Our men and women will benefit from significant investment into the BBL and WBBL, which will help ensure we have the best players playing.”