Mumbai: The International Cricket Council has made a statement on the women’s ODI World Cup starting this month end by announcing on Monday that the winners will be awarded a higher cash prize ($4.48mn – approx. ₹ 39.41 crore) than what the 2023 men’s champions Australia took home ($4mn – approx. ₹35.19 crore). The total prize pot for the eight-team tournament to be played in India and Sri Lanka has also been raised, to $13.88mn (approx. ₹122 crore) from the $10 million (approx. ₹88mn) for 2023 men’s event.
File image of Australia celebrate defeating England in the final of the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup match in Christchurch, New Zealand, Sunday. (AP)
The move signals a fundamental shift in the effort to promote women’s cricket, going far beyond symbolic markers. The 2017 ODI World Cup was seen as a turning point merely by virtue of the final being played at Lord’s. Until then, women’s World Cup matches were played in lesser known venues, a clear demarcation from the men’s game and underlining the distance they still had to cover. The 2020 women’s T20 World Cup achieved another milestone with the India-Australia final attended by a record 86,174 spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
With the latest move, women’s cricket stands equal in real terms.
“This announcement marks a defining milestone in the journey of women’s cricket. Our message is simple –women cricketers must know they will be treated on a par with men if they choose this sport professionally,” ICC chairman Jay Shah said in a statement.
Compared to the total prize money the 2022 New Zealand ODI World Cup offered ($3.55mn), it is roughly four times of that amount this time ($13.88mn). The winners’ purse is now highly rewarding. If the top prize is equally distributed between 15 squad members, each player will take home over ₹ 2 crore. Women’s Premier League (WPL) is the most rewarding tournament in women’s cricket and this bonanza from ICC tops individual earnings of all players in the T20 league other than the most prized player in each of the five teams. This should really raise the prestige of the tournament.
However, it will take time for more teams to become competitive, especially in ODIs where Australia hold an enviable record – seven titles in 12 editions. England have won four times and New Zealand once.
There is substantial prize money even for the four teams that don’t make the semi-finals. Every participating team is guaranteed $250,000 (approx. ₹2.20 crore), the sum more than the total purse for the 2013 edition held in India. The field will go up from eight to 10 teams for the next edition in 2029.
A lot of the revenue allocation mainly comes from the bumper men’s media rights for 2024-27 ICC events, thanks to the India market. Although women’s marquee events were sold separately, the valuations are known to be modest. But with WPL raising the bar, and other leagues like The Hundred, the trajectory of growth has great potential. Last month, Google marked a standalone partnership with ICC for the women’s game.
In terms of achieving pay parity, cricket through prize money for its marquee events has made significant progress. They have started quite late though. Each Grand Slam in tennis pays men and women equally. The US Open bridged the pay gap way back in 1973 when Billie Jean King pioneered the cause.
