​Do These Women Deserve Better?

Welcome to the world of top flight women's cricket, where the lady at the crease might also be the one who shows you to the garden supplies aisle at your local Bunnings Warehouse. At least that's the case for Claire Koski, wicketkeeper and batsmen for the the second-ranked Women's Big Bash League (WBBL) team, Sydney Thunder. The 25 year old from Campbelltown in western Sydney is among the top female cricketers in the country, a distinction that earns her a total of $AUD 22 000 a year, ten grand of which is made during her seven week stint in the WBBL. She tries not to complain because she loves what she does but training seven days a week (during pre-season. Four to five times during regular season) while trying to hold down a job and complete a university degree isn't hard, it's impossible

"I'm still having to live with my parents (laughter) and they're fantastic, they're great with it, but I think I rely on them more than I want to," she says, "Fortunately enough I have my own car and I can pay those sorts of bills but I very much do live week to week."

This impossible balancing act is one Cricket Australia CEO, James Sutherland, said recently many women enjoyed. Claire disagrees. "It's quite a burden it really is…I think it makes study a little bit harder as well, trying to juggle what subjects I take (and) when to make sure I don't have to be away from them during the cricket season," she says.

Claire is the first wicket I see fall when I arrive at the Blacktown International Sports Centre in Rooty Hill to see her team take on the sixth ranked Brisbane Heat. I walk into the stadium behind a sub-continental man and his daughter, here to watch two players of the same descent play for either side (after the game they will all sit in the stands together breaking bread). It's top class cricket. Everything is done with the intensity of the professional; from running water out during the drinks break to dummy spits at the loss of a wicket. It's hot, tempers are flaring, shots are crisp and well-timed, and the bowling, especially in Brisbane's case is sharp. They hold Sydney to 115 runs, which they reel in easily for the loss of just one wicket. With an admission price of zero dollars, it is surely the best free show in town.

Stick around for the classic catch at :33 seconds.

"I think we were a bit under par with the batting on this deck and we didn't really hit our bowling mark, so we were just a bit under par in all areas," explains Sydney Thunder's strike bowler, Lauren Cheatle after the game.

Cheatle is from Bowral, the rural township in south-west NSW that produced Sir Donald Bradman. She is one of the lucky ones who at 18 is entering the game as it teeters on the edge of full-paid professionalism. The game's governing body, Cricket Australia (CA) recently upped the payment pool for women's cricket from a total of $AU2.36 million to $AU4.23 million. Included in this was an increase of the maximum retainer for players selected in the national team - from $49K a season to $65K - and a minimum retainer that went from $19k a season to $40k. Cheatle is exceptionally talented, earning her selection in both NSW and Australian teams and qualifying her to earn the minimum wage. She is living comfortably off the money she earns from cricket.

For Claire, the Women's Big Bash League retainer went up from a minimum of $3K to $7K with a max of $15K. While payments for the Women's National Cricket League went up from a $7K to $11K per season.

Cricket is big money in Australia generating around $AU380.9 million dollars a year in revenue. Currently, the governing body Cricket Australia (CA) and the player's union, the Australian Cricketers Association (ACA) , are locked in a spiteful dispute over how that money should be divvied up.

Under a history-making Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between male players and the administrator in 1997, the men were guaranteed around 26% of the revenue generated by by the game, but he women were not.

Currently the men and women are involved in negotiations with the governing body to further increase the amount of money available to professional players.

The union have requested the women's payment pool be increased by a further $AU1.45 million a year. This money would have come out of the men's payment pool, a move which has been endorsed by Australian men's Test Captain, Steve Smith, and leading batsmen, David Warner.

The union have also made the serious claim that there is a major discrepancy between the amount of revenue being generated by the game and what Cricket Australia says is being generated. They claim around $AUD 400 million is missing from the five-year period since the last MoU agreement was signed and have called for an audit of Cricket Australia's finances. Even a fraction of that would easily lift the women's game into full-paid professionalism. In response, Cricket Australia claims the terms of where and how the revenue is generated and distributed are clear and that the only money not made available to players is that which they did not directly contribute to i.e government grants. Cricket Australia also argues that the two "adjustment ledger" payments totalling more than $80m being made to players this year and next and could be used in areas such as women's pay.

The ACA have also listed several other concerning discrepancies between the way male and female cricket players are treated. Among them, that the national minimum pay for men is $270,000 excluding superannuation, compared to $40,000 including superannuation for women.

That doctors are present at all men's games but not women's. That women who work for Cricket Australia get maternity leave while the players themselves do not. That women were forced to declare whether they were pregnant or not prior to signing a contract. That women only get one year contracts while men can sign multi-year deals. That women are subject to different behavioural standards than male players. Australia's workplace oversight body, the FairWork Ombudsman has announced a probe into the contract clauses, prompting the chief executive James Sutherland to state that policies relating to "pregnancy, maternity leave and carer support" are all under urgent review.

The MoU negotiations are ongoing with an outcome expected early in the new year. In the meantime pressure is coming from all sides of the game for a more equal outcome for women.

"We know that we're fighting for our rights as female players and the men are right behind that so we're really happy about that," says Cheatle.