ICC CEO Geoff Allardice Says Talks Are Underway To "Balance The Prize Money Difference Between Men And Women

The ICC CEO Geoff Allardice has stated that bringing parity in prize money for “finishing places of teams” in women’s and men’s world tournaments will be a part of the governing body’s deliberations for the next eight-year cycle of women’s events, which will run from 2024 to 2031.

When questioned why the winners of the upcoming 2022 women’s ODI International Cup in New Zealand would take home around a third of the prize money collected by the champions of the most recent men’s ODI World Cup, held in England in 2019, Allardice suggested a possible revision of prize money for women’s world championships.

The ICC increased the prize money for the winners of the eight-team 2022 women’s ODI World Cup from US$1.32 million to US$1.32 million, bringing the total prize money pot to $3.5 million, up to $1.5 million from the 2017 edition, which England won.

Despite this, the total prize pool for this World Cup is still $6.5 million less than the $10 million awarded at the 10-team 2019 men’s ODI World Cup, where champions England received $4 million and runners-up New Zealand received $2 million for reaching the final. Australia and India, the losing semi-finalists, received $800,000 each.

We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way to achieving prize money balance: ICC

“We projected through this event cycle – most of the ICC’s finances are done with an eight-year horizon – and what we’ve been trying to do over this cycle is bridge the gap between the women’s prize money and the men’s prize money,” Allardice said on Tuesday, ahead of the 2022 World Cup semi-finals.

“We’re about to start talking about the next cycle, and one of the first topics on the table will be achieving parity between team finishing positions in women’s and men’s events.” So, while we’re not quite there yet, we’re on our way.”

Though the women’s ODI World Cup will be expanded from an eight-team tournament to a 10-team event in 2029, rather than in 2025, Allardice pointed to the disparity in the number of teams in the two events as a cause for the women’s wins being lower than the men’s.

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