James Sutherland says it’s time all sports ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to paying female athletes

CRICKET Australia boss James Sutherland says there’s been a fundamental change in the way our community sees women’s team sport. But there’s still ground to make.

TAURANGA, NEW ZEALAND — MARCH 02: Australian Women's team celebrating an out during the Women's One Day International match between the New Zealand White Ferns and the Australia Southern Stars on March 2, 2017 in Tauranga, New Zealand. (Photo by Mead Norton/Getty Images)

THE past two years have seen a fundamental change in the way our community sees women’s team sport.

I think it started with the women’s football World Cup in Canada, which included Australia’s famous win over Brazil in the round of 16, a wonderful Netball World Cup hosted and won by Australia, followed by cricket’s launch of the Women’s Big Bash League across the summer of 2015/16, and it received another boost with the Rio Olympics, and Australia’s gold medal in the women’s rugby sevens.

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And now we have seen Australian rules football join in, with a successful launch of their first national league.

It’s an exciting time to be a female athlete, with more opportunities, more interest, and more games being televised. Though all this means much less if, unlike their male counterparts, women can’t make a living out of their skills, and have the opportunity to become fully professional athletes.

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland says women need to be able to make a living from their sporting excellence. Picture: AAP Image/Mal Fairclough

Cricket has been leading the way on pay for female athletes, and last April we lifted our annual financial commitment to them from $2.36 million to $4.23 million.

But we recognise that this is still not good enough, which is why we have presented our players’ association with a truly landmark proposal. Not just to include women in cricket’s collective agreement for the first time, but to make our elite women fully professional, with increases of more than 125% in pay for this coming summer.

Cricket will be the first team sport to walk the talk on gender.

At its heart is the principle that men and women should be paid the same basic wage, and we have built this into the core hourly rate for all cricketers.

The men will, over the year, still earn more because they play more games, and there is a premium for higher profile and commercially successful formats, such as BBL and international cricket.

But it means that a woman playing state cricket and WBBL will earn an average of $52,000 next summer, still leaving time for a balance that allows study or other career options, and our Australian representatives will receive an average salary of $179,000.

We want young girls to aspire to play cricket, to follow their heroines and to be the best — knowing that, if they choose, they can develop a well-paid career out of their passion.

In sport, timing is everything. This is the time for women in sport to be taken seriously, and be given the opportunities they deserve.

It is a time for boldness, and a time for those leaders who speak about gender equity to make it happen.

* James Sutherland is the chief executive officer of Cricket Australia, and a Male Champion of Change.

Originally published as James Sutherland says it’s time all sports ‘walk the talk’ when it comes to paying female athletes