Cricket Australia is set to lift the salary cap for its domestic T20 league by 50% and increase the minimum and average pay for the women’s national team by 25% as part of a five-year deal agreed with the player union.
The salary cap for each team in the men’s Big Bash League will increase to 3 million Australian dollars (US$2 million) as the sport’s Australian administrators try to keep the best local talent and attract high-profile overseas stars in an international market sprinkled with lucrative franchise T20 leagues.
“We have recognized the need to ensure that the BBL remains highly competitive in a changing global cricket landscape,” Cricket Australia chief executive Nick Hockley said on Monday. “We’re confident this agreement will help maintain its place at the heart of the Australian summer.”
Cricket Australia announced a 66% increase in payments to professional women cricketers across the span of the agreement, saying the top contract holder in the world champion team has the capacity to make 1 million Australian dollars ($670,000) a year with national and women’s BBL deals and payments from franchise tournaments in India and England included.
The women’s national contract list will increase from 15 to 18 players.
At the domestic level, the average pay for women’s players on state and WBBL contracts will increase to AU$150,000 ($100,000).
“Cricket now clearly offers the best earning opportunities of any team sport for elite female sportspeople,” in Australia, Hockley said.
The new deal, he said, “represents another major step forward in the rise of women’s cricket with significant increases in remuneration for the
inspirational role models of the world champion Australian women’s team and the WBBL who are driving substantial growth in female participation.”
The 24 men on central contracts with Cricket Australia under the new deal will have an average pay increase of 7.5% to AU$951,000 ($630,000), before match payments for participation in test matches, one-day internationals or T20 internationals.