Top female cricketers get $100k more

Australia’s top women cricketers have won a $100,000 pay rise, more than doubling their income from the sport.

Former Australian women’s cricket captain Belinda Clark. Picture: David Geraghty

Australia’s top women cricketers have won a $100,000 pay rise, more than doubling their income from the sport, as Cricket Australia yesterday set up an ugly ­row with their male counterparts on the eve of one of the most important Test matches in recent ­history.

Cricket Australia’s offer will boost the average wage for female international cricketers from $79,000 to $179,000 on July 1, while state cricketers in the Women’s National Cricket League and Women’s Big Bash League will see their average earnings more than double, from $22,000 to $52,000, under the deal ­tabled by Cricket Australia yesterday.

While Cricket Australia has ­offered generous pay rises to male and female players, it rejected the ­retention of the existing revenue-sharing model the players insist must remain, setting up a showdown on the eve of the final Test of the series against India.

The pay of women cricketers still remains well behind the average international male Australian player, who will receive $816,000 per year which, with the inclusion of bonuses, match payments and BBL payments, would rise to an ­average of $1.16 million.

Former Australian cricket captain Belinda Clark can only marvel at yesterday’s landmark decision to award elite women cricketers a 125 per cent pay rise. Clark had to pay for the honour of touring with Australia. She represented Australia for 15 years but didn’t make a cent.

“I didn’t make any money. I mean, at all,” the International Cricket Council Hall of Fame member told The Australian last night.

“I have not been paid a cent to play cricket. I played from 1991 to 2005. The players before me, and the generation before that, all those players will be absolutely rapt about where this has landed.

“They’ll be absolutely ecstatic. It’s exactly how I feel. I’m sure the players will be thinking, ‘Wow.’

“Not too many people in Australia would be knocking back a pay increase of 125 per cent. It’s a pretty significant leap.”

Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland said: “We wanted to address the historic disparity between male and female players. It really is a landmark moment. It’s something we’re very excited about. It’s a landmark moment for cricket and for women’s sport in this country. It’s one thing to talk about supporting women’s cricket. It’s another thing to bring it to action, to do something about it. It is a really significant step for our sport.”

The 46-year-old Clark is employed by Cricket Australia. She’s based in Melbourne while heavily involved in the restructuring of junior cricket.

She played in age group boys teams in her home town of Newcastle, NSW, as a youngster ­because there was no such thing as a girls’ competition.

“I remember playing at school and thinking I wanted to go to the Cricket Academy,” she said. “I had no idea it was for boys only. Now you’ve got girls and young women who can take the leap to saying, ‘I’d actually like to do this as a ­career’. Imagine one of your daughters walking in the door and saying, ‘I’ve got a WBBL contract, I’d like to play for Australia, I’m earning this amount of money and I can go to university’.

“It’s a very different picture from five years ago, let along from when I was a kid. What has happened today adds so much more to an understanding of where it can lead.”