Cricket South Africa announces equal pay for both men and women cricket team

South Africa women's team (Source- Twitter)

South African women cricketers will now get the same pay as men after Cricket South Africa confirmed the changes on August 22. This is surely a significant move to boost equal shares and rights for women’s cricketers all over the world. The new policy will come into play on September 1, when the South African women’s team's Pakistan tour will begin. 

It is a progressive move as SA has now joined the likes of New Zealand and India, who have previously been introduced to this pay scale in their cricketing systems. It is also pertinent to mention that Cricket Australia announced a significant pay hike for their women cricketers at the start of this year. Notably, the Apex Cricket Council, in its Annual Conference in Durban in July, announced in a historic decision equal prizes for Men and Women cricketers in major events. 

Cricket South Africa has also proposed a six-team women's cricket league for the first time in their history- 

The morale-boosting of CSA's six domestic league team structures for its professional league is likely to commence with the 2023-24 season. The new provincial scheme is inspired by the current two-tier arrangement, which includes 16 teams. where the 16 teams will be divided into two sets out of the top six and bottom 10; then further, they are split into half, which makes five team categories, and a promotion-relegation system is followed. 

In the end, the six teams in the professional league that will have both 20 and 50-over fixtures are the Titans, Lions, Dolphins, Western Province, Free State, and Garden Route Badgers. Interestingly, out of the six teams mentioned, four of them, namely the Titans, Lions, Dolphins, and Western Province, also have men’s teams in South Africa’s first division. 

This move is likely to come as it will have a significant monetary bearing on CSA’s pocket with an estimated US$ 2.1 million, which is set to be spent over the period of three years, and will be taken by the South African government for the  US$ 800,000