Landmark deal transforms women's cricket as ACT returns to second XI scene

Women's cricketers are the big winners in a $634 million five-year deal signed on Monday by Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers Association bosses.

Pay for female cricketers will increase by almost 66 per cent across the board to a combined $133 million over the life of the agreement.

Players holding state and Women's Big Bash League contracts are set to reap the rewards with an average pay packet of $151,019, with the bulk of the country's female talent to earn in excess of $100,000.

The ACT Meteors and rival state teams will offer two additional contracts, with WNCL squad sizes swelling to 16 in a move that makes cricket a far more attractive pathway for emerging talent.

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CA will increase the women's national contract list from 15 to 18, with a 25 per cent pay increase for those players and the highest earner expected to pocket around $800,000 across all contracts in Australia.

The WBBL salary cap will increase to $732,000 per year in a bid to keep pace with the women's Hundred in England, India's WPL and other franchise leagues.

"[The deal is] making cricket a really attractive option, not just in the salary they're able to earn from it but in the conditions and support that go with it. It's making cricket a really viable option for young female players," Cricket ACT head of cricket Stuart Karppinen said.

"There's been an increase in the number of days per week. We're moving towards three and a half days per week, up from two-and-a-half. We've also had an increase in the number of contracts available.

"There's some significant improvements for them, there's an increase in the salary cap."

The ACT will also resume as a standalone entity in the national second XI competition next summer, as revealed by The Canberra Times last year.

The Comets have spent the past seven seasons playing under the ACT/NSW Country banner, but the partnership has been a point of contention in Canberra with the region's best players often moving to Sydney or elsewhere in pursuit of higher honours.

There was a sense the Canberra competition would suffer from the arrangement, with the best talent from the city and surrounding regions bypassing the Cricket ACT ranks.

But NSW will revert to a single second XI team next season, ditching the NSW Metropolitan and ACT/NSW Country split which effectively saw the Comets become a NSW second or third XI.

The door to the Comets remains open for Canberra exports playing grade cricket elsewhere.

"There's probably some selection and eligibility criteria we'd put in place to make it a bit of a softer landing," Karpinnen said.

"We've had approval and endorsement from the other state and territory managers that we can actually select players of ACT origin, and it'll scale down as we go through each of the seasons.

"It doesn't completely cut off players we've had in our system that are playing in competitions elsewhere.

"We've seen it before. ACT players were picked up outside of that second XI competition, and got rookie contracts and state contracts over the years. There's no reason to think that wouldn't start happening again.

"It's great news for local ACT cricketers that there is now a pathway, in the male space, towards elite cricket. This is just a stepping stone, hopefully one day, with our aspirations to have a first class and domestic List A cricket [team] as well. This is hopefully a step towards that."

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