A social media storm has erupted following comments about Cricket South Africa’s desire for the Proteas Women to be paid ‘the same’ as the Proteas men. Rather than speculating, SA Cricket magazine went directly to the source to find out the real story.
We asked Cricket South Africa’s (CSA) interim CEO Thabang Moroe to clarify exactly what the situation is with regard to the heated debate hitting social media (as well as national newspapers) following his comments that were published by Sport24. In this article, Moroe was quoted as saying that CSA’s desire was for the Proteas Women cricketers to ‘be paid the same’ as the men. Outrage erupted across many quarters regarding the unfairness of such a situation, with the chief argument centring around the men’s team presumably having to ‘subsidise’ the women’s team.
Having carefully read through the article on Sport24 – including Moroe’s comment that ‘the changes in the financial model are not aimed at taking away from players’ – we decided to speak directly to him to bring an end to the heated debate that seems to be dividing South Africans.
‘As far as payment for the Momentum Women’s team and the professional provincial women is concerned, we are not yet in a position where we can pay women cricketers equal salaries to the men’s side because of commercial reasons. This is obviously because we are not in a place where the women’s cricket side of things is attracting the same kind of sponsorship or commercial benefits that we are realizing in the men’s side of things,’ Moroe told SA Cricket magazine.
‘What we are doing with the current MoU is that we are negotiating with Saca to give women a little bit more in terms of incentives and in terms of performance bonuses. Over and above the revenue share model we have for the professional men’s side, we are suggesting, as the management of Cricket South Africa, that we add a certain percentage that will be looked at as going specifically towards professional women cricket players.
‘We are not yet in a position where we can pay women cricketers equal salaries to the men’s side because of commercial reasons.’ – Thabang Moroe, CSA interim CEO.
‘So this is one of the steps we are taking in order to drive towards equity as far as treatment is concerned as well as remuneration in cricket. Hopefully, in time, we will have a specific commercial programme in place that we will then drive with all our might to make sure that we recognize and reward women professional cricketers the same way we do men.’
The above comments by Moroe should offer complete clarity to cricket lovers across South Africa regarding this issue, and the approach by CSA should be viewed as excellent news for all South Africans.
SA Cricket magazine applauds CSA for their commitment to growing women’s cricket and we stand by the principle of equal pay and equal opportunities for all South Africans.
Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images
