Though the overall pots in both competitions are up by 25 per cent, the distribution of funds has not been equal, with the best-paid men’s players set to earn £200,000 - a 60 per cent increase - compared to the top women’s fee, which has risen only 30 per cent to £65,000.
Oliver Hannon-Dalby, the newly-elected chair of the Professional Cricketers’s Association, has become the latest hail the potential impact of the unprecedented investment, vowed to use his tenure to push for pay parity across the men’s and women’s Hundred tournaments.
Rob Hillman, the Hundred’s tournament director, insisted that the rises were “clearly not the end of the journey” in boosting pay for women’s players, with the top salary now four times more than in the tournament’s debut year in 2021.
Hannon-Dalby, a county stalwart, has himself never played in the Hundred and while he welcomed the influx of cash about to hit a sport plagued by financial difficulties, he urged cricket’s authorities to use it wisely to preserve the game’s future at all levels.
Hundred chiefs have been told that the competition’s widening gender pay gap is “not fair and not right”, as English cricket celebrates its near £500million windfall from the franchise sell-off.
