New women's cricket pay deal to launch ACT Meteors to highest-paid female athletes in Canberra

In a historic moment for women's sport, the Meteors players hope a new five-year pay deal will allow them to reduce work commitments and focus on improving their game.

Captain Katie Mack is set to be one of the biggest beneficiaries, with her salary set to rise well above the $100,000 mark when her Meteors contract is combined with her Big Bash deal with the Adelaide Strikers.

Veteran Meteors allrounder Zoe Cooke said the $53 million boost for women's cricket will pave the way for players to improve and usher in a new generation of full-time athletes.

"For a lot of younger girls it means they can focus on their studies because [until now] it has been study, work and cricket all at once," Cooke said.

The Meteors will earn WNCL match payments on top of their $60,000 salary for the lowest-paid players in the squad of 16.

It equates to about $5000 per game based on the 12-game WNCL campaign, and puts female state cricketers well ahead of any other code in Australia.

The Canberra Capitals - the city's most successful team - have a minimum wage of $15,000, the new Raiders' NRLW side will give players at least $30,000 and Canberra United's A-League Women's players get $25,000.

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The Meteors are by far the biggest per-game earners compared to those competitions. The lowest-paid Capitals player gets about $700 per game, the Raiders will get $3333 and United players pocket $1388.

"This is a great step in the right direction to get the women's domestic game full time," said Cricket ACT head of cricket Stuart Karppinen.

Cooke, 27, is one of the Meteors' longest-serving players and was named as a member of Cricket ACT team of the century earlier this year.

She started her WNCL career earning just a few thousand dollars for an entire season. "Just about everyone in our squad had another job," Cooke said.

For most of her career, she has trained for half a day on Mondays, with full days on Tuesday and Thursday while juggling other work and study commitments.

"It's awesome to have this new MOU come out. It means we get to train more and put more time and effort into cricket," Cooke said.

"Hopefully it means no part-time jobs outside of cricket and we can move to [being] full-time cricketers.

"It's great motivation to know that you can make a living out of cricket now ... the young girls can see that there is a pathway and it's a great step forward."

The Meteors squad will increase from 14 players to 16 players, while the minimum WNCL and WBBL earnings will be more than $80,000. The top players in Australia will be able to earn up to $1 million per year for national duties.

The memorandum of understanding will now also mean that parental leave has also been increased which Karppinen said will be in place for game day payments working similarly to injuries payments.

"It's a better-rounded program we can put together [for the players]," Karppinen said.

"It's a real ambition of the Australian Cricketer's Association to get the domestic level to full-time."

Karppinen also said the return of the ACT Comets in the men's second XI competition would rebuild the pathway for players to break into Sheffield Shield teams and earn Big Bash contracts.

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