New Delhi: The England and Wales Cricket Board will offer equal starting salaries to the men and women’s teams from 2025.
The ECB has decided to overhaul the women’s domestic structure from next season, with number of tier one teams increasing from eight in 2025 to nine in 2026 and 10 the following year.
The ECB said first professional contracts of players across genders will have the same amount while it will remain equal at the senior pro position too for well established players.
BBC reports that the starting salary for any player would be £20,000 (approximately $26,750), which swells to £28,000 (around $37,441) at senior most professional level.
Eight county teams that were accorded tier one status have to invest a minimum of £500,000 (approx $6,68,522) on player salary costs on a minimum squad of 15 contracted players while introducing a salary cap of £800,000 ($0,60,792).
“Equalising starting salaries across our men’s and women’s professional domestic game is another positive step forward for women’s cricket in England and Wales,” the ECB’s director of the women’s professional game Beth Barrett-Wild said, as quoted by AFP.
“This is a big step towards reaching parity and a journey that the PCA is fully committed to achieving,” Professional Cricketers’ Association director of player rights and women’s cricket Emma Reid said.
Eye-opening report
The ECB considered restructuring the pay grade after an Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) report last year said women received an “embarrassingly small amount compared to men”.
It said the England women’s team were paid only 15 per cent compared to the men’s team for Tests while they receive a quarter of what the men get for limited overs matches.
The report also called for average pay to be equal for international matches by 2030 and average pay and prize money to be similar in domestic cricket by 2029.
It led to the ECB announcing in August 2023 that the women’s players would get the same match fee as the men.
The report also said English cricket was rife with discrimination, including sexism.
The ECB said first professional contracts of players across genders will have the same amount while it will remain equal at the senior pro position too for well established players. Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
