The EnglandandWalesCricketBoard(ECB) has been hit by a serious issue just a couple of days before the start of The Hundred. Female players have said that the ECB hasn’t responded to their requests for supporting the part-time female players who will be leaving their jobs for five weeks to play in the tournament.
Female players will earn between £3,600 and £15,000 during the five-week period, which is well below their male counterparts whose contracts are signed for £24,000 to £100,000. Each women’s squad has at least 5 who are not professionals. And they are likely to have the contract with the lowest pay grade.
England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) (Photo- Twitter)
The players are also reportedly frustrated by the fact that 11 Australian women’s internationals who had originally been drafted to participate in The Hundred had each been offered £10,000 as an “overseas disturbance fee” in addition to their player salaries of £15,000 by the ECB.
The ECB probably need to address that: Kate Cross
Since all the 11 Australians eventually withdrew from the tournament, a number of players, including England internationals, asked the ECB if the remaining funds would be used in support of those on the lowest pay brackets.
On the matter, England’s KateCross told Telegraph Sport:
“There are only five domestically-contracted girls earning a good wage now. And the Covid situation is not helping because you’ve got some girls who are having to pull out of work now, who are probably on the lower end of the money payments [for The Hundred]. There’s no subsidy for them, as they are not allowed to go out of the environment and work.
“So the ECB probably need to address that. If they want to move forward, even more so, I think that’s where they’re probably going to need to start investing. The situation that came out of the fact that the [Australian women were no longer being offered the overseas disturbance fee] was, can the money that is now not being used, be used to top up those lowest contracted girls? And I don’t know, because I didn’t get an answer.
“And that’s where I worry. I don’t want girls to drop out of cricket because they can’t afford to play. Until those lower brackets are topped up, you could have some girls dropping out of this [tournament] because ultimately it’s not worth their while with work. And that’s the real shame for me. There must be many ways around it but, yeah, that’s the situation that we’re in.”
Kate Cross (Image Credit: Twitter)
An ECB spokesperson in reply stated that the players who will come in as replacements for the Aussie withdrawals will be given this compensation package. Hence, it won’t be available to distribute to others.
A spokesperson for The Hundred said: “These compensation payments have been specifically offered to those overseas women’s players who face significantly more complex journeys, extended periods of quarantine, and longer spells away from home – challenges domestic players do not face on the same scale. While some overseas players have not been able to travel, we have been pleased to find a number of replacements who are still entitled to compensation payments.
“Contingency funds used for these payments are also having to meet a wide range of additional costs in staging the competition and keeping people safe during a pandemic, so it is not possible simply to redistribute money to other players.”
