Women Australian Cricketers Set for Massive Payday Following a Major Announcement from Cricket Austr

The average salary of domestic Australian female cricketers is set to rise 125% by 2021 under a new five-year offer proposed by Cricket Australia to the Australian Cricketers Association.

Which Australian sporting teams have been statistically the most successful in the past eight years? First is the Australian Women’s Rugby Sevens team, and the second is the Australian National Women’s Cricket Team (The Southern Stars).

The Southern Stars, since 2009, have won three T-20 World Cup as well as a World Cup. They are the number one ranked team in the world in all three formats (Test, One Day and T-20). They also have four of the top ten globally ranked batsmen, and three of the top ten globally ranked bowlers.

Considering the above statistics and the fact that the Australian Women’s domestic competition is the strongest in the world, I was as surprised as anyone to discover that the average female domestic professional cricketer in Australia earns only $22,000 per annum. If you compare that statistic to the overall income of Australian earners, this places them in the bottom twenty-three percent. For a demographic of people who are at the top of their respective field, this statistic is clearly skewed. Under the new plan, the salary of the average female domestic cricketers will increase to $52,000 by 2021, a move which will see the average female domestic cricketer jump some forty percent in the overall income of Australian earners.

For international female cricketers the news is even sweeter. Currently, the average international Australian female cricketer earns $79,000. By 2021, it will be $179,000. This new figure would put the average international in the top 6.2% of income earners in Australia, and in a history that has seen no major progression in female funding, this is a monumental change.

The CEO of Cricket Australia, James Sutherland, expressed the need for growing gender pay equality:

“Under this offer, we will achieve gender equity by ensuring that the minimum and average hourly pay will be the same for state men and women in 2017/18. In addition, match fees for the WNCL (Women’s National Cricket League) and the Matador Cup will be exactly the same: a one-day game for a state cricketer is worth the same to both men and women.”

The new plan doesn't only cover the top end of the sport, with Sutherland announcing that a “significant amount of funding” would be pumped into grassroots cricket in Australia, with equal emphasis on the “growth and recruitment” of both men and women. Cricket Australia as part of the plan has committed an extra $25m to grassroots cricket; a 33% increase from the current figure which hovers around the fifty million dollar mark.

To round it off, Sutherland continued by explaining that “We are also introducing, for the first time, prize-money for the WNCL of $258,000 and the WBBL (Women’s Big Bash League) of $309,000 this coming summer.”

The men’s Big Bash League has always had a significant prize pool for the winners, and this new move will inevitably see the training, recruitment and prestige of the women’s competition improve markedly.

It is an exciting time to be a cricket fan in Australia.