Rajni
North News
Chandigarh, September 17
Marking a historic milestone, ICC has announced the same prize money for women cricketers as their men counterparts in the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup, 2024. This will be the first ICC event where male and female cricketers will be awarded the same prize amount.
The International Cricket Council (ICC) had made this decision at the ICC Annual Conference in July 2023 when the ICC Board took the step of reaching its prize money equity target seven years ahead of its schedule of 2030. This will make cricket the only major team sport to have equal prize money for its men’s and women’s World Cup event.
The Women’s T20 World Cup will now be held in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE) and Sharjah from October 3 to October 20. The winners of the tournament will receive US$2.34 million. This amount is 134 percent higher than US$1 million, the amount given to Australia on marking the victory in South Africa in 2023.
The two semi-finalists who don’t advance will receive US$675,000, a significant increase from US$210,000 in 2023. The total prize pool stands at US$7,958,080, representing a substantial 225% rise from last year’s fund of US$2.45 million.
This decision aligns with the ICC’s strategy to prioritise women’s cricket and boost its growth by 2032. Teams will now receive equal prize money for achieving the same finishing positions at comparable events, as well as the same amount for winning individual matches. The prize money for the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 is only higher due to the participation of 10 additional teams and 32 extra matches being played.
For each win in the group stages, teams will earn US$31,154. Meanwhile, the six teams that do not advance to the semi-finals will share a pool of US$1.35 million, distributed according to their final standings.
In contrast, the prize pool for the six teams in 2023 was US$180,000, distributed equally. This year, teams finishing third or fourth in their group will receive US$270,000 each, while the teams that place fifth will take home US$135,000 each.
All 10 participating teams are guaranteed US$112,500 each.
The rise in prize money for the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 follows a similar increase seen in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup 2022, where the total prize pool was raised to US$3.5 million.
The tournament was initially scheduled to be held in Bangladesh. Due to the political unrest in the country they were shifted to the UAE. In the tournament, 10 teams will play 23 matches to decide the winner.
