Image Credit- Skysports
With men’s salaries unchanged for the third
consecutive season, the ECB is investing an extra £800,000 in wages for the
women’s Hundred in 2024 in an attempt to draw the top international players in
the world and address the gender pay disparity in the competition.
For each of the eight women’s squads, the wage cap
will rise by 40%, from £250,000 to £350,000, with a 60% increase in the top
three salary categories. As a result, each squad’s top two earners will now
receive £50,000, up from £31,250 in 2023 and £15,000 in 2021.
The Women’s Premier League (WPL) in India offers
salaries that are far higher than those in the women’s hundred, with Smriti
Mandhana earning the highest salary of INR 3.4 crore (£320,000). But when some
elite Australians, including Ash Gardner and Tahlia McGrath, chose not to
participate in the Hundred last summer, the ECB is hoping that the rise will
draw the finest players in the world in 2024.
With the exception of Ireland and Sri Lanka during
this year’s Hundred’s window, all full-member sides are eligible for the
Women’s Future Tours Programme. foreign players may use the Hundred as a chance
to get ready for the upcoming Asia Cup and T20 World Cup, which are scheduled
for September and October.
Salaries in the men’s Hundred are due to stay at the
same level as 2023, with a top salary band of £125,000 and a salary cap of £1
million per squad. The tournament struggled to attract star names last summer
and the top wage bracket remains significantly below those on offer in Major
League Cricket (MLC).
The Hundred will take place in 2024 from late July to
late August, with the final week of MLC and the England men’s third Test
against the West Indies coinciding with the early phases. The men’s T20 World
Cup is scheduled for June in the Caribbean and the US, and hundred teams are
worried that a lot of foreign players would remain in the area for MLC.