England captain Heather Knight has delivered a sharp critique of the widening pay disparity between men and women in The Hundred, calling the situation a bad look for the competition. While acknowledging the overall increase in salaries for women players, Knight emphasized the optics of the gap growing larger at the top end, despite the influx of money into the sport.
This comes amidst broader discussions about the financial health of cricket and the distribution of wealth following the recent sale of stakes in The Hundred franchises. The stark reality is this, for the upcoming season, the difference between the highest men’s and women’s salaries in The Hundred has ballooned from INR 84,03,660 to a staggering INR 1,51,26,587.
However, the current structure will see the gap continue to increase with the male players set to get a 60% raise to £200,000 (INR 2,24,09,758) while the female players will see a rise of £65,000 (INR 72,83,171). The base level or the lowest level for the men will be £31,000 (INR 3361464) while the women have their lowest salary at £10,000 (INR 1120488).
“There’s a huge amount of money coming into the game, so we want to see that the whole game is benefitting. You don’t want that gap to widen, you want to continue to make progress,” said Knight.
An ECB spokesperson explained that the larger increases for top male players are necessary “to be competitive in the global market,” while the focus in the women’s game is on spreading the increases “across the salary bands because we need to make more progress across the board.”
This justification, however, may not fully satisfy critics who argue that prioritizing top-end competitiveness in the men’s game at the expense of narrowing the gender pay gap sends the wrong message.
It’s not only The Hundred but the pay gap remains an issue across the leagues with the Indian Premier League (IPL) having Rishabh Pant as the highest paid player at INR 27 crore while Smriti Mandhana is the highest paid player in the Women’s Premier League (WPL) 2025 at INR 3.40 crore.
The Hundred is a professional cricket league which is the only cricket league around the world which follows the 100-ball format and is hosted by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).
The inaugural season was held in 2021 with Southern Brave and Trent Rockets winning the first two editions while Oval Invincibles won the last two editions in the men’s category. The women’s category saw Oval Invincibles win in 2021 and 2022 while Southern Brave won in 2023 with London Spirit being the current reigning champions.
There is plenty of Indian investment in The Hundred, with Mumbai Indians owning 49% stake in the Oval Invincibles, Manchester Originals having RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group own 70% of their stake while Sunrisers Hyderabad wholly own the Northern Superchargers.
(Quotes sourced from BBC)
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