Cricket Australia offered to more than double elite women players’ pay and also promised an increase for the men in a bid to end an impasse over money yesterday. The body said the package meant women had the opportunity to pursue a fully professional career at both international and domestic levels, while men would continue to be among the country’s best paid sport stars.
CA chief James Sutherland said the proposed five-year Memorandum of Understanding, put forward as negotiations continue before the current deal expires at the end of June, had “gender equity at its heart”.
But the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA), the players union, said the offer needed closer scrutiny.
“We are pleased that the Australian Cricketers Association agrees with us that women, for the first time, should be part of the MOU, and we have proposed a financial model that has gender equity at its heart,” Sutherland said. “Under the proposal, women will receive an immediate average pay increase of more than 125 %.”
This would see international women cricketers’ pay jump from Aus$79,000 (US$60,885) to Aus$179,000 as of July 1 this year, with an expectation that it will rise to Aus$210,000 by 2021. CA said total potential remuneration for all players, including guaranteed and performance elements, would go up from Aus$311mn over the course of the current MOU (2012-17) to Aus$419m over the next five-year period, an increase of 35 %.
Men who represent Australia at international level would see their average yearly retainer rise to Aus$816,000 by 2021/22. With match fees and performance bonuses, the expected average income for these players — including Big Bash League Twenty20 payments — would soar 25 % to Aus$1.45m by 2021/2022, said Sutherland.
“We have placed the emphasis on increasing the guaranteed amount that the men will receive, rather than rely on any projected increase in revenue,” he added. “This is a landmark agreement. We are now looking forward to sitting down with the ACA to work through the details and we are confident we will be able to announce a completed agreement before June 30.”
However, the ACA said there was a lack of detail in CA’s proposals and that the offer needed further study. “The way in which these changes will be both funded and embedded in the MOU does require much closer scrutiny,” it said in a statement. “There is a lot of fine print to examine and a lot more forecast information still needed by the players.” 


Yorkshire skipper Ballance extends contract
England batsman Gary Ballance committed himself to Yorkshire for a further two years. The 27-year-old Zimbabwe-born naturalised Englishman — who has appeared in 21 Tests scoring four centuries — had a year remaining on his present contract and said the new deal would allow him to focus solely on on the pitch matters.
“The new deal has come at the perfect time for me,” he told the Yorkshire website. “I can now purely focus on the captaincy, batting and scoring runs. There are no outside worries. For me it’s all about focusing on the main task; scoring runs and winning matches for Yorkshire,” added Ballance, who moved to England in 2006 and joined Yorkshire in 2008.
Andrew Gale, his predecessor as skipper and now head coach, said it was a filip for the county to have secured his services for two more years. “He’s one of the best batsmen in the country and his record backs that up,” said Gale.
“He’s done it at international level too for England so we want to keep him at the club as long as we can.
I believe he’s got all the qualities to be a success for Yorkshire.”



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