Huge achievements for women’s cricket team, but challenges remain

Hats off to the Australian women’s cricket team, unarguably one of this nation’s greatest sporting success stories. The players’ achievements on the field, led by captain Meg Lanning, have been extraordinary by any measure.

They are ranked number one in the world, virtually unbeatable, and on Sunday became T20 champions for the third time in a row, vanquishing South Africa at Newlands in Cape Town.

Meg Lanning and Ashleigh Gardner celebrate winning the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup.Credit: Getty Images

The Age’s Greg Baum writes: “They’ve played in a way that has changed the status and perception of women’s cricket forever and made some of them household names, and they’ve compiled a record that puts them in the conversation about the greatest Australian sporting teams.”

Their success is not contained within the boundary ropes of the grounds they grace. What a milestone it was when, earlier this month, Ashleigh Gardner secured a contract worth $558,000 at the inaugural Women’s Premier League auction in India.

Granted, it has not put Gardner – yet – into the same financial league of the best-paid male cricketers and footballers, but it is nevertheless a sum of money that women cricketers from generations past would find extraordinary. After winning the 1997 World Cup in India, according to fast bowler Cathryn Fitzpatrick, players were each presented with an invoice for $1800 to help cover costs.

Fitzpatrick said: “But because of all the media around what we had done, a Bendigo publican stepped forward and said, ‘Nope, that’s not good enough,’ and said he would pay for it. So, this guy we had never met wiped the debt for all of us. It was fantastic.”

Ashleigh Gardner is still something of an outlier among a handful of Australian women to sign contracts worth more than $100,000 in the WPL. Her payday nevertheless reflects a hard-fought professionalisation of the women’s game in Australia, spurred on by the landmark deal in 2017 that meant the pool of payments to elite women players increased from $7.5 million to $55.2 million.

Practically, that meant the difference between pay packets that were little more than a contribution towards training expenses to something approaching a living wage, substantially more for those representing our country.

Cricket Australia, often the target of much criticism, deserves some credit here for supporting and prosecuting these developments alongside the players’ association.

Again, there is still a vast gulf between the earnings for elite women and men, but the difference between playing as amateurs and being paid professionally cannot be overstated.

Another milestone was reached this month: more than 20,000 girls aged between five and 12 are now registered to play cricket in Australia, no doubt inspired by the success of Australia’s women’s team and – critically – supported by authorities and sponsors, notably long-term partner the Commonwealth Bank.

As women’s cricket matures into a sustainable sport, thanks to the efforts of players and administrators past and present, old challenges still remain as new ones emerge.

The pay gap, principally a function of sponsorship, television rights and gate receipts, endures. Despite some gains, elite women still play fewer matches than the men; more hours playing means more match fees, better skills development and greater media exposure.

A handful of players – among them Gardner, Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney and Tahlia McGrath – now find themselves suddenly in a different financial league to their teammates thanks to the bounty of the Indian WPL; that may create hitherto unknown pressures on what has so far been a team of battlers in the same boat.

“It is a little bit awkward because everyone’s earning different types of money and everyone’s being auctioned at different amounts,” admitted Gardner.

Meanwhile, the effort put into developing the sport at a grassroots level must continue, even if easy wins are harder to come by. The hardest work has been done. No doubt more remains ahead.

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