Pakistan women go business class as new chief aims to close the gap

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Pakistan women go business class as new chief aims to close the gap

By Chris Barrett

Australian cricket’s shift to make the women’s game professional is being used as an ambitious model for Pakistan, whose British chief executive has made advancing the remuneration and conditions for female players a priority since he began in the post 10 months ago.

Wasim Khan, a former county cricketer in England who was most recently CEO at Leicestershire, told The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age the Pakistan national women’s team was now being flown in business class for the first time and players’ central contracts had been raised to 150,000 Pakistani rupees ($1415) a month.

It is a far cry from what Australia’s leading women’s players are earning, with the average retainer for a top player rising to $179,000 when the last pay deal was struck two years ago and the average domestic player’s contract having been lifted to $52,000 under that agreement.

Pakistan are ranked seventh in the world both one-day internationals and Twenty20 internationals and Wasim said the country was intent on trying to close the gap when it came to the disparity between incomes around the globe in women’s cricket.

“We’ve done a huge amount of work with our women’s side. Culturally, it’s not been the done thing but I’ve been in the post 10 months now and it’s important that our [women’s players] are valued in terms of their contribution and what they’re bringing to the fabric of cricket in Pakistan,” Wasim said.

Sydney Thunder's Nida Dar in action during the Women's Big Bash League.

Sydney Thunder's Nida Dar in action during the Women's Big Bash League.Credit: AAP

“We fly them business class now for any flights over five hours. We’ve improved the value of their central contracts and the girls who take part in domestic cricket now get paid to play. They are all things that were never there before. There is still a huge amount of work we need to do around that but we’re moving in the right direction to develop and invest more into our women’s game.”

The current deals were a rise of 20 per cent on previous contracts, which were upgraded in length from six months to a year in July. All-rounder Nida Dar also became the first Pakistan player to sign a contract in the Women’s Big Bash League this year and has featured this summer for Sydney Thunder.

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“We’ve got 10 on central contracts, they’re fully professional in terms of that,” Wasim said. “It’s a lot better than what they were getting before. But what I want to do is try to close the gap as much as we can over the next three years, making sure they are getting paid properly.

"They’re performing, they’re working hard, they’re very skilled and we want to bring more girls to the game and believe there is a future in the game because the salaries are good. They’re more likely to take up the game then so it’s important for us on a number of levels that we keep improving the pay scales and all other benefits that we’re currently providing.”

Wasim said the improvement in Australian women’s cricket in pay and other conditions such as a parental leave policy was “a model we can all strive towards”.

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