Cricket Australia will upgrade the women’s national team’s pay for the T20 World Cup next year
Cricket Australia’s hierarchy are making moves to ensure that the Australian women’s T20 World Cup team will take home just as much as the men regardless of the ICC’s decision on prize money.
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Cricket Australia is set to override the ICC’s gender pay gap by topping up the Southern Stars’ prizemoney at next year’s home Twenty 20 World Cup.
News Corp understands that CA powerbrokers have held high-level talks about ensuring Meg Lanning’s team takes home just as much cash as a men’s team would in the 2020 tournaments.
If Australia defend their crown that could see CA shell out more than a million dollars in a move that would underline its commitment to equality and women’s sport.
The ICC said its prizemoney allocations for next year’s men’s and women’s T20 World Cups were yet to be locked in.
But they confirmed Australia were awarded just $200,000 for winning last year’s T20 World Cup in the West Indies.
That sum was dwarfed by the most recent men’s edition, won by West Indies back in 2016. The Caribbean kings shared $1.6 million for their stunning triumph in India.
The total prize pool for the 2016 men’s T20 World Cup was $5.6 million, while, according to the ICC, last year the women cricketers shared just $750,000.
The prizemoney discrepancy does not sit well with CA chiefs.
The most likely outcome is for CA to top up the Aussie women’s ICC prizemoney so that they take home the same dollar amount that a men’s team would for finishing in their position.
Next year’s women’s T20 final will be staged at the MCG on International Women’s Day (March 8), which could set a new record for attendance at a women’s sporting fixture.
The men’s T20 World Cup will be staged in Australia eight months later with the final set for the MCG on November 15.
Powerbrokers from rival codes are joining forces behind closed doors to ensure women’s sport keeps gaining momentum across Australia.
CA would even be open to hosting back-to-back women’s T20 World Cups to continue exposing and promoting women’s sport.
While the 2022 edition will almost certainly be staged elsewhere, if those plans fall through then CA would gleefully accept hosting rights.
The pay imbalance between men and women has long been a sticking point across all sports and across the world.
The winner of Sunday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup final between the United States and Netherlands will bank $4 million out of a total prize pool of $30 million, which was doubled from the last tournament.
However that is still well short of the FIFA Men’s World Cup, where France banked $38 million out of the $400 million pool last year.
There has been equal prize money at all four tennis slams since 2007, although Novak Djokovic argued men deserved more cash because they attracted larger audiences.
Originally published as Cricket Australia will upgrade the women’s national team’s pay for the T20 World Cup next year