Protea women set to get bigger slice of pie
Cricket South Africa keen to explore a new model that will equalise the side's share in revenue.
Dane van Niekerk during the CSA Acting CEO and Momentum Proteas Media Opportunity at CSA Headquarters on May 30, 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Lee Warren/Gallo Images)
On the eve of the Proteas women’s team’s departure for a tour of England, Cricket South Africa (CSA) acting CEO Thabang Moroe confirmed that he is looking to drive a new revenue model that ensures the national women’s team shares more equitably in the sport’s resources.
While some of Moroe’s statements in the build-up to negotiations with the players’ union, the South African Cricketers’ Association (Saca), angered the men’s team, there is no doubt his support is much appreciated by women’s captain Dane van Niekerk and her team.
“We are busy negotiating with Saca over the new memorandum of understanding and I would like to see some sort of revenue-sharing model for the women. Obviously they’re not going to have equal pay from the word go, but it’s about building their revenue stream. I believe we need to have a separate and very driven commercial programme for the women,” Moroe said.
“That will be the first step to making sure there is a level playing field and after meeting with the captain and coach, it’s pretty clear there are things we have to iron out because they are obviously a high-performance team. As Cricket South Africa, we need to pull our socks up and make sure we provide them with an environment that is conducive to them competing at the highest level.”
While England are the reigning world champions and the benchmark when it comes to international women’s cricket, Van Niekerk said her team will be disappointed if they don’t beat their hosts in their own backyard, as well as aiming to win the triangular series that also includes powerhouse New Zealand after the initial three ODIs that are part of the ICC Women’s Championship.
“We owe them a big one after what happened in the World Cup semifinal. We showed confidence against them which we never had before, but it’s not a learning experience to tour there anymore, we played more ODI cricket than any team last year so we are going there to compete and win the series,” Van Niekerk said.
