Cricket: ECB Bosses get a bonus, women get unequal pay
It was announced on Monday that senior suit wearers at the ECB who run English and Welsh cricket are to share a £2.1m bonus. This seems a challenging thing to do given that last autumn 62 employees lost their jobs due to a financial crisis related to COVID.
The crisis has lessened in 2021 and the success (in financial terms) of The Hundred suggests cricket’s finances at the top level are on a firmer footing. Tom Harrison who heads up the ECB took a pay cut in 2020, although for how long seems unclear. However its reported that he was paid just over £500K last year which compares to the £700K he was previously getting.
The bonus is apparently a retention payment. Many might think that there are many other suit wearers who could do just as good a job if not better at running cricket than Mr Harrison and his fellow ECB bosses. It’s true of course that by private sector standards £500K is on the low side for a CEO but that would suppose that Mr Harrison could do that kind of job, which in essence requires the holder to have some ability at crisis management.
This world of highly paid suit wearers contrasts rather sharply with that of women cricketers who have been acknowledged as the stars of The Hundred, attracting big audiences and interest. That was not something designed by Mr Harrison & Co btw but something dictated by COVID meaning women’s matches were played back to back with the men’s games at the large Test venues.
In the Hundred the highest paid women cricketer got £24K while the lowest paid male cricketer started at £25K.
Of course some may argue that in some cases thanks to the games structure women cricketers outside of The Hundred got paid little or nothing (there were some contracts). That however is not the point. Harrison has now said that in 2022 women players will get a ‘substantial’ pay rise. Given the bonuses paid at the top one would hope so.
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