NEWS
Follow UsWhile The Hundred is unique in terms of its set-up to give a fairer representation of equal opportunities, the Australian batter Beth Mooney insisted there’s still a long way to go before it becomes an ‘equal billing’.
Read: All you need to know about The Hundred Womens Competition 2024
The 30-year-old was one of the draft picks, landing herself a £50,000 deal with Manchester Originals. However, this is still way off from the £125,000 that is given to the draft picks in The Men’s Hundred. While there was definitely an increase from previous years, Mooney believes that the competition is up there in terms of the exposure it provides.
"I'm not sure it's quite equal billing, because the men still get paid more," Mooney told ESPNcricinfo.
"But yeah, in terms of the exposure, and the fan base, and the quality of the tournament, it's certainly up there with one of the best going around. It's doing a great job with getting more opportunities for women in this country to play cricket but, as with any women's sport, we're not quite there with equal billing,” she added.
However, having said that Mooney was sceptical about whether women’s cricket could actually match the salary cap of men’s cricket, given how much revenue the latter generates.
"I don't know if it's quite an achievable goal," she said. "The men obviously bring in a lot of revenue across the world, in terms of the viewership and the broadcast and things like that, so the remuneration piece is always a bit of a tough one.”
That, though, won’t stop the women’s cricketers from pushing the boundaries a bit, trying to reduce the gap between men’s cricket and their cricket. Mooney believes that the aim of the sport should be to attract more talent to the grounds and give them opportunities to play the sport.
"But we've got to keep pushing the boundaries a bit," she added. "I think we've got to keep asking the right questions of the ICC, and of each of the different boards of the countries, and make sure that we're still striving to get, first and foremost, more girls in the game, but making sure there's equal opportunities across the board for each country and the females as well."
Australia have dominated women’s cricket for the longest time, so much so that they almost attained a sense of inevitability. But over the last few years, more and more teams have challenged that notion, giving them a tough fight, so much so that Australia won’t go to Bangladesh as the overwhelming favourites, with India and England lurking around their peripheral vision.
"I don't know if there's really such thing as a gap, to be honest," she said. "I think every team in the world has been getting better, just like we have. We play a lot more cricket now, so there's always going to be times where different teams beat each other. We're just fortunate to have those opportunities to put the game out there, and play competitive cricket."
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