St George junior and Australian representative Rene Farrell hopes the large wage increase for top Australian women players will eventually lead to wage equality in the sport.
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Farrell returned from India last week where she was with the Southern Stars as they lost to the West Indies in the final of the World Twenty20, ending their quest for a fourth straight title.
But the increased exposure of women’s cricket and Australia’s success has seen Cricket Australia announce last week it would almost double its women's payment pool from $2.36 million to $4.23m.
More than 150,000 Australian viewers watched the WT20 final, almost double that which tuned in for their win over England in the final four years ago.
Farrell told The Leader she hoped pay for women’s cricketers would one day be in line with their male counterparts.
“I think it’s getting there,” she said.
“Like young Lauren Cheatle, a 17-year-old, I’m excited for people like her.
“We’ve sort of paved the way and hopefully it’s only going to get better.
“By the time she’s in my shoes hopefully they’ll be earning the big bucks.”
The 29-year-old fast bowler, who is contracted with Cricket Australia for the 2016-17 season, said the increase would make a huge difference to her life.
We’ve sort of paved the way and, hopefully, it’s only going to get better.
- Rene Farrell
“It’ll help pay the bills [and] help pay off my uni degree so that’s exciting,” she said.
“It just helps to know that you don’t have to go out and find some part-time work or a full-time job to assist with my studies and also play sport.
“It is a massive help, I know Cricket Australia have put a lot of time and effort and resources into getting the best for the girls as the Players’ Association have too.”
The boom in women’s cricket exposure and playing numbers has excited Farrell and, with more money in the sport, the former Georges River College, Penshurst Girls campus student is hopeful its growth would continue.
“With the WBBL [and] the contracts there, that’s only going to grow and the exposure we had from that tournament as well obviously getting international players over here,” she said.
“[It was great] getting decent crowds and TV time on mainstream TV.
“But I think it’s 25 per cent of people playing the game are women at the moment and I can see it 50-50 in the not too distant future.”
Farrell also attended the announcement of an $11 million development project at Penshurst Park on Friday that will include the construction of a new indoor training centre and a synthetic all-weather playing field along with new outdoor turf training nets and upgrades to lighting.
“It’s very exciting,” she said.
“I remember playing rep cricket here for St George, I played my first school game here, score my first hundred here.
“It’s going to be a fantastic facility.”
