In a historic step, the International Cricket Council (ICC) introduced pay parity as far as the prize money in major events such as Cricket World Cup, T20 World Cup and U-19 World Cups. The ICC has been building up to this moment for the last five years since 2018 increasing it by almost five times the prize money of women's events since then before taking the big decision in Durban, South Africa in the Annual Conference on Thursday, July 13.
Announcing the same through an ICC release, Chairman of the Council Greg Barclay said, "This is a significant moment in the history of our sport and I am delighted that men’s and women’s cricketers competing at ICC global events will now be rewarded equally.
“Since 2017 we have increased prize money at women’s events every year with a clear focus on reaching equal prize money and from here on in, winning the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup will carry the same prize money as winning the ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup and the same for T20 World Cups and U19s too," Barclay further added.
The teams will now receive the same amount of prize money at comparable events for finishing in similar positions as well as the same amount of money for each match. The winners of ICC Women's T20 World Cup 2020 and 2023 received a prize money of $1 million which is five times than that of the 2018 edition.
The prize pot for the Women's World Cup 2022 was $3.5 million, 75 per cent increase from the $2 million prize pool in the 2017 edition, with the winners Australia walking away with $1.32 million last year in New Zealand.
This is a significant step in the empowerment and promotion of the women's game which has seen record viewership and increase in eyeballs in the last couple of years.
