ECB Delivers Increased Funding For Women’s Cricket

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has announced a £3.5m increase in funding for the women’s regional game, which will run until the end of 2024. 

The uplift in funding will increase the number of professional women’s players in the domestic game, in addition to increasing the salary pot and the average salary. 

In 2023 there will be 80 ECB-funded professional women’s cricketers, double the 40 initially contracted in 2020, in addition to the England Women’s centrally contracted players. 

There has also been an increase in staffing salaries and capacity, with a focus on the science and medicine provisions at each region. 

ECB Interim Chief Executive Officer Clare Connor, said, “Everyone within cricket should be immensely proud of the game-changing progress of professional women’s domestic cricket since the implementation of the Transform Women’s and Girls’ Cricket Action Plan began in 2020.

“The significant increase in funding we are announcing will not only continue to drive the performance standards of our domestic players across England and Wales, giving the women’s game more strength in depth, but critically we are creating a more equitable future for women and girls in our sport. Young girls have a clearer pathway in cricket than ever before, and the belief that they too can aspire to be professional cricketers. 

“As of February there will be nearly 100 professional female cricketers in England and Wales. There were fewer than 20 before we launched the new regional structure in 2020.

“We’re indebted to the hard work of everyone: players, support staff and the administrators who have backed the vision and driven this change – and to the PCA, for the important role they’ve played in supporting this progression with their continued collaboration.

“Combined with the dramatic impact of The Hundred, we are seeing the benefits of professionalisation and collaborative ways of working and cricket is thriving as a result.”

The ECB recently appointed Chief Executive Officer Richard Gould who will take his post at the end of January and will oversee the development of the women’s game.