Aussie women’s cricketers now in same stratosphere as other high earning athletes

Dollars and sense don’t always go together in cricket’s brave new world, but the WPL is certainly a game-changer. Here is how the top Aussie sportswomen stack up.

Ashleigh Gardner will earn an eye-watering $70,000 a game in India, but the mysterious snubbing of Alyssa Healy shows that dollars and sense don’t always go together in cricket’s brave new world.

Gardner’s life-changing $558,000 contract for three-weeks’ work in the inaugural Women’s Premier League next month suddenly puts her in the same earning stratosphere as surfing great Steph Gilmore and horse racing star Jamie Kah.

The average Australian domestic cricketer earns about $86,000 a year, but 25-year-old Gardner will earn just short of that for one match in her eight-game WPL season.

When her estimated $250,000 national Cricket Australia playing and marketing contract is added to her WPL riches, Gardner will earn in excess of $800,000 this year.

Gilmore is on an estimated $750,000 from surfing and endorsements, while Kah is up around $900,000.

On another level again are some of Australia’s top individual athletes like golf superstar Minjee Lee who takes home an estimated $10.4 million a year, while tennis ace Ajla Tomljanovic is up around the $2.5 million mark.

Minjee Lee’s earning is unrivalled among Aussie women. Picture by Michael Klein

Matildas soccer icon Sam Kerr is actually on a smaller playing contract to Gardner with Chelsea in the Women’s Super League, but with her endorsements and Australian contract added in she’s up around $1.5 million.

However, as women’s cricket buzzes from its game-changing cash injection, it’s important to note that the new economy isn’t necessarily a fair one.

The billionaires who run Indian cricket move to the beat of their own drum, and the fact Australian superstar Healy was sold for a bargain $122,000 is staggering.

Inexplicably, Healy wasn’t included in the list of marquee names who went under the hammer first in the auction, despite her track record as being the best white ball World Cup match winner of the past five years.

Healy paid the price for not being put up for sale until No.35 in the auction, by which time Beth Mooney ($350,000) and a host of overases wicketkeepers had already taken all the big coin.

To effectively rank Healy as the 35th ranked player in the world is laughable, but not everything makes sense in the weird and wonderful world of IPL – whether it be men’s or women’s.

Spare a thought for Alana King and Kim Garth, the only two members of Australia’s World Cup squad in the midst of battle in South Africa who didn’t get picked up in the WPL other than Darcie Brown, who withdrew.

The disparity of Cameron Green taking home $3.15 million ($225,000 a game) in the IPL compared to Steve Smith getting brushed is less brutal because Smith isn’t short of a dollar himself.

But in the world of women’s cricket, the difference between one Australian squad member taking home $558,000 and another getting nothing is profound when their national playing contracts are only valued at between $88,000 and $150,000.

It presents a difficult new dynamic for Australian coach Shelley Nitschke to manage during this World Cup – when the range of emotions on WPL auction day would have spanned all ends of the spectrum.

Ash Gardner was the top earning Aussie. Picture: Marco Longari/AFP

“The WPL is going to take the game to a different level, so it’s exciting for Australian cricket as it is for cricket all over the world,” Nitschke said.

“I think our girls are excited about it, but they’re focused on the job at hand while we‘re here in South Africa as well.”

Earning the big money won’t necessarily be a walk in the park for Gardner either.

Gardner has been a superstar of Australian women’s cricket for many years now, but has always had Healy, Ellyse Perry and Meg Lanning receiving most of the public attention.

But there is no hiding for Gardner now as Australia’s richest player and there is a certain pressure that comes with having the biggest pay packet.

Proud Indigenous star Gardner showed bravery to take a stand against Australia Day this summer, attracting some ugly social media criticism – a sign she has the fortitude to handle increased expectations.

“She delivers in three skills,” Nitschke said.

“She’s been really important for us over the last 12 months to two years and even beyond that.

“But I think what we‘re finding of recent times is she’s really coming into her game and maturing as a cricketer and she plays a key role for us.”

Originally published as Aussie women’s cricketers now in same stratosphere as other high earning athletes