Howzat? No pay deal for women T20 cricketers
Northern Districts stopped from announcing equal pay for both teams
Northern Districts wanted to pay their women cricketers this year — New Zealand Cricket said: “Not so fast”.
New Zealand Cricket is under pressure to back up its commitment to the women’s game after apparently stalling ND’s initiative to pay its female cricketers equal pay during this summer’s domestic T20 doubleheaders.
Northern Districts Cricket prepared a media release earlier this month, trumpeting the fact they would be paying their female cricketers the same as their men, but the message never made it.
The Herald on Sunday understands board member Peter McGlashan was told by a senior NZC staffer that the move was not sustainable and would affect ongoing negotiations for a Memorandum of Understanding covering women’s cricket between the national body and the six major associations, of which ND is one.
“We’re in the preliminary stages of setting up, in conjunction with the NZ Cricket Players’ Association, the terms of reference governing the new women’s MoU — which is likely to cover all professional women’s cricket in NZ, and usher in an exciting new era for women’s cricket in general,” said NZC spokesman Richard Boock.
“While there probably have been conversations around how ND’s initiative could affect this, NZC would never challenge the autonomy of major associations, or their right to make their own decisions.”
Boock said NZC was working on “sustainable” change, including more investment in high-performance and grassroots programmes, and increasing the number of women in governance positions.
Sources said there was major disappointment among some in the women’s game (though none would comment for fear of biting the hand that could potentially feed them), as correspondence was already circulating detailing ND Cricket’s plans.
It highlighted that men’s match payments for Super Smash games were $575 per player, an outlay of $6900 a game.
“The Northern Districts Board has committed to paying equal pay for equal work for all the double headers for the Northern Spirit so a total unbudgeted amount of $34,500,” the email sent by Peter McGlashan said.
“The board have committed to the payment and charged our CEO, Ben MacCormack, to find a way to source funding to recoup the cost through various fundraising means. He is confident the positive PR and widespread appeal of such a gesture will allow him to raise the required funds.”
There are a number of doubleheaders planned during the holiday season, the first in Hamilton on