South Africa’s women cricketers are set to receive the support they need once the new MOU has been signed.

The new memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Cricket South Africa (CSA) and the South African Cricketers’ Association (Saca) is set to be signed any day now, and one of the big winners will be the Proteas Women, confirmed new CSA CEO Thabang Moroe.

At the press conference to announce his appointment as permanent CEO, Moroe highlighted CSA’s commitment to getting the Proteas Women to receive the same treatment as the men. He highlighted that their aim was to try as best as possible to bring them to salary parity with the men, but Moroe highlighted that such parity would be based on their performances and the revenue that they generate through building a following and a significant viewership.

CSA have lived up to their commitment to support the Proteas Women by improving their conditions for practising and travelling, along with changes to their travel logistics as well as coaching and support staff improvements.

‘We have increased women’s salaries, we’ve increased the number of contracted players in the squad [and] we have now given them a permanent assistant coach. They have a manager [and] we are looking at giving the manager an administrator so that it helps lessen the workload as far as the manager is concerned.

‘They travel in business class, something that they have never done before. They have single rooms – they used to share. So those are things that they never had. They have a revenue share model with Saca, something they never had. We are pushing Saca to assist us by giving some of them bursaries and having personal development plans for some of them.

‘There’s a lot that’s changed in the last eight months for these ladies, and there’s a whole lot more that will continue to change,’ said Moroe.

For any team to rise to the top of their game in international competition, it is vital to receive such support from their governing body, and the Proteas Women can look forward to closing the gap between themselves and the Indian, English and New Zealand women’s teams.

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