"All you hope is that it keeps increasing every year" - Hundred salaries, chasing contracts and the domestic revamp

NICK FRIEND speaks to Anya Shrubsole, Fran Wilson and Lauren Winfield following The Hundred team reveal about pay brackets, the hunt for a deal, Kia Super League reflections and the wider context of the game's restructure

The salaries available to female players in The Hundred represent “a huge step forward from the Kia Super League”, according to Anya Shrubsole, though the England bowler says that she hopes those figures will improve year-on-year.

Whereas the men’s competition relies on a full player draft, which takes place on October 20, to complete the eight squads, the women’s edition is now at the mercy of a window for the eight franchises to complete their 15-player parties.

The first two members of each side – all England-contracted players – were announced on Thursday at a joint launch for both tournaments.

Between now and the end of May, when the second stage of the window then closes, the women’s teams will then complete their lists. Those will be filled by the remaining centrally contracted players not signed up in the September window, including Tammy Beaumont, as well as local and overseas players.

However, the salary brackets available have been criticised. While the men’s game has seven bands between £30,000 and £125,000, the highest category available to the women is £15,000.

The bottom end of that scale sees a £3,600 fee for the six-week tournament – a figure that may prevent some from entering the process, with the money not sufficiently practical to give up work. Team captains will receive a £1,200 bonus.

Journalist and broadcaster Alison Mitchell described them as "disappointingly low" on Twitter, while highlighting the importance of their context within the women's game's wider restructure.

“All you look to do is hope that keeps increasing every year,” Shrubsole told The Cricketer. “I have always taken the approach that you should only ever compare yourself to yourself. Everything in the world is driven by money and we have to be realistic about where we are at as a women’s game.

“We have grown so much; we have moved so far and I guess the pay for the England-contracted players shows just how much it’s grown in the time I’ve played in. All you can ask is that just continues to jump forward every year.

“I don’t think anyone would expect to come in on the pay brackets that the guys are bringing in because realistically they fill stadiums, the people who come and watch, they bring in more money at the moment than the women’s game.

“From my point of view, it’s a really good step in the right direction. Of course, everyone would like it to be a bit more, but who wouldn’t like to earn more for what they do? Not just in sport but in their work. If they don’t say that they want to, then I think they’re lying. It’s a huge step forward from the Super League. That’s what’s important.”

^{The salary brackets available to female players in The Hundred have been criticised}

Shrubsole is one of the 16 England-contracted players to already know their fate ahead of the competition’s debut in 2020. She will represent Southern Brave alongside her England teammate Danni Wyatt, under the management of her former England captain, Charlotte Edwards.

It represents a change of scenery for Shrubsole who was part of the Western Storm side that steamrolled this year’s tournament, as well as a departure from a settled, well-bonded team that became used to winning.

“It was one of the things that was really bizarre at the start of the Super League – I had never really played against a lot of the England girls,” she explained. “We had such an amazing thing going at Western Storm and we were really successful. As the saying goes though, all good things come to an end.”

The Kia Super League’s bittersweet sign-off at Hove this summer saw Heather Knight lead her Storm side to victory, though she and Shrubsole have moved on to different sides now.

When Wyatt, the tournament’s top run-scorer, mentioned The Hundred in the post-final presentation, the reference was booed by some members of the Hove crowd.

Lauren Winfield has been signed up for the new competition by Danielle Hazell, her Yorkshire Diamonds coach in this year’s Super League, now in charge of Northern Superchargers.

It is a move that suits her, providing her with the opportunity to remain on home territory, where she has helped out with Yorkshire’s age-group teams and acts as an ambassador for the women’s game in the region.

As Diamonds captain last season, she led a squad that included both India’s Jemimah Rodrigues and Australia’s Alyssa Healy. Rodrigues enjoyed a fine tournament, while Healy’s reputation as one of the game’s most destructive hitters continues to grow – she broke the world record for the highest score in a WT20I only last week.

And while Hazell will lead the team’s recruitment, Winfield’s senior role – she hopes to continue as captain in the new format – will give her the opportunity to dial into her own contacts.

“They [Jemimah and Alyssa] will obviously be our first choice,” Winfield told The Cricketer of Superchargers’ overseas plans. “There’s no two ways about that. Healy and Jemimah are two at the top of the list.

“Whether they decide that’s where they want to come back to is up to them. They are two of the best batters in the world, but I would like to think that they came to us last year, they were successful, they obviously enjoyed the environment because they scored big runs and slotted into the group really well and became real key cogs in our system.”

^{Western Storm won the final edition of the Kia Super League}

It is one of the quirks of the women’s competition; rather than the men’s draft, the women’s squads will be firmed up over the course of an eight-month open market, with the onus on franchises to approach players, attempting to convince them to join one team over another.

“I know for a lot of the girls it has been quite hard,” Shrubsole said. “It’s something we’re not used to doing. For the Super League, we were allocated to teams so it has been an interesting process, getting calls, working out what your role would be in a team, working out if you want to go locally.

“I had a pretty early conversation with Charlotte (Edwards), where she basically asked if I’d like to play for her and I pretty much said yes. For me, it was all done and dusted pretty quickly. I took myself off the market because that’s where I wanted to play.”

It was an equally pain-free process for Winfield, who provisionally discussed the prospect with Hazell at the end of the KSL, before a deal was done soon after the window opened.

That, however, is not the case for many; and Winfield, an experienced head, has warned younger players not to jump into anything prematurely, even if – as The Cricketer understands – many of the squad places have already been filled.

“It has been really unusual actually,” she explained. “It’s a whole new ball game for everyone. You are on the hunt: ‘We want her, we want her.’ It is a bit of an eye-opener for a lot of the youngsters that will be going into the open market and getting approached.

“Teams pulling you one way and then another way with offers and opportunities. It is a whole new ball game for a lot of us. It is quite different, but it’s hard.

“When you get an offer you just jump at the first one. For a lot of the youngsters, you do just have to see what comes in and who wants you to play what role.

“With it being new, it could be that you dangle the cookie and you go straight away, but for a lot of the youngsters it will be something new and it is important that they go to the places that are best for them.”

It is one of the challenges facing what remains of the recruitment process. Shrubsole is in favour of not having a women’s draft at this stage; “What you don’t want is to draft a 16-year-old girl from Hampshire all the way up to Yorkshire,” she says.

^{Australia have emerged as the runaway team to beat in the women's game}

Fran Wilson enjoyed a fine Super League – only five players scored more runs, resulting in a deal with Hobart Hurricanes to play in this winter’s Women’s Big Bash.

Speaking at the launch, she told The Cricketer: “The biggest difference is the bigger scale. The fact we’re alongside the men naturally brings more media presence and I guess more pressure to play, pressure when you’re on the pitch, which can only be good for our English players moving forward,” she added.

Much of that, of course, will depend on the televised coverage given to the women’s matches.

Sky Sports will show the entire men’s schedule and at least 10 of the women’s matches. The documentation sent to PCA members says “the final broadcast schedule for the women’s competition is yet to be confirmed” but there is an absolute commitment from the BBC to provide live coverage of finals day.

It would, therefore, seem foolish not to make use of live-streaming where – and if – necessary in order to maximise coverage of the women’s tournament.

According to the PCA document, the women’s teams will play one of their group games at the men’s primary venue as part of a double-header.

This counters what Lancashire chief executive Daniel Gidney told The Cricketer in relation to Manchester Originals' plans. He said: “We are going to run two double-headers [at Emirates Old Trafford alongside the men’s team’s games]. I think that’s appropriate with a Manchester-based team.”

 

Wilson, who has been signed up by Oval Invincibles, views the new competition as one strand of the domestic restructure, the finer details of which have not yet been released, though the ECB has committed to a £20m investment to establish new centres of excellence.

“The Kia Super League was brilliant and I don’t know whether that’s disappearing completely. I feel like our domestic structure is getting put in place at the moment – we don’t know what it’s going to look like I think this is just an extension of the KSL. It’s not disappearing. I have read a lot of things about The Hundred replacing the KSL, but I don’t think it is at all.

“This is an add-on on a completely different level. What is replacing the KSL is the domestic restructure underneath this.”

The summer’s Ashes defeat against Australia highlighted the importance of a renewal of the infrastructure; Australia’s number of professional players outweighs that of England by close to fivefold.

The Women’s Big Bash has been at the heart of Australia’s success; a flagship tournament providing a focal point – so much so that it has been elevated to its own standalone section in the calendar this year.

“Hopefully it’s not just closing the gap on Australia, but hopefully doing something like this is putting a marker down ourselves,” Wilson added both of the new competition and a revamped women’s game. The target, ultimately, has to be a greater number of professional players from whom an England coach can pick.

This is the bigger picture for the ever-growing women’s game to consider. Shrubsole agrees: “Yes, this is an amazing competition, but it’s as much about professionalising and even semi-professionalising the women’s game so we can have that bigger pool of players.

“We can’t just have a professional England team and then a completely amateur everything else. It’s about closing that gap. The money that’s coming into this will start to do that. The restructure will start to do that.

“It will take a while to take effect, but it can only help women’s cricket in the long-term.”