News

ECB to double player salaries for 2022 edition of The Hundred

Women's CricZone Staff

02 Dec 2021 00:00 IST

New Update

Marizanne mayhem at Lord's as Oval Invincibles become first-ever The Hundred champions — Oval Invincibles inaugural The Hundred champions © Getty Images

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have delivered on a promise which was made after the success of the inaugural season of The Hundred by announcing an increase in salaries for all the players. Ahead of the second edition next year, it was announced that the women will be paid more than double what they earned in 2021.

The decision comes on the back of an extremely successful tournament which saw record fan engagement. According to the numbers released by the ECB at the conclusion of the tournament, a total of 267,000 fans attended the women’s matches, which is a record-breaking feat. Apart from this, 1.4 million viewers tuned in for the final, which was played at the Lord’s Cricket Ground on August 21, 2021. It should be noted that 17,116 attended the match as well.

According to the reports on ESPNCricinfo, the highest paid player in the next women’s edition will earn £31,250 (US $ 41,500) instead of £15,000 (US $19,935). The lowest-paid player will now receive £7500 (US$10,000) instead of £3600 (US$ 7,500). The captaincy bonus has also increased to £2500 (US$3300) from £1200 (US$ 1,594). All eight teams will now have a salary purse of £250,000 (US$330,000) which is a significant increase from £120,000 (US$160,000) which was allotted last year. Overall, there has been a jump of 108% for the female cricketers.

ALSO READ: Charlie Dean, Maia Bouchier and Kirstie Gordon added to England's pre-Ashes training camp

The increase in salary is expected to somewhat bridge the gap between the earnings of the male and female players in The Hundred. A spokesperson of The Hundred was quoted by ESPNCricinfo saying, “Salaries in The Hundred women's competition have more than doubled ahead of the second year of the competition. We're proud to be significantly increasing our investment in women's salaries, we believe this is a step in the right direction as we grow the women's game and are committed to our ongoing support of The Hundred women's competition.”

Several top players from Australia and New Zealand like Meg Lanning, Beth Mooney, Alyssa Healy, Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr had to pull out of the first season due to the quarantine requirements and issues with international travel. However, most of them will be in England next summer when The Hundred kicks off, with the Commonwealth Games to be staged in Birmingham around the same time. This potentially gives the tournament a stage to become bigger than the first edition.

Apart from this, it has also been confirmed that the tournament will continue to follow the double header structure from the inaugural edition, which has been cited as a reason for the success of the women’s tournament.

Meg Lanning ECB The Hundred