PCA tell counties to ‘practise what they preach’ in new women’s system

The Skilled Cricketers Affiliation (PCA) have advised counties that they should “practise what they preach” after the ECB allocate ‘Tier 1’ groups in England’s revamped women’s home construction.

“Hopefully, we’ll see them practise what they preach,” Mitchell stated. “That is going to be an vital a part of the subsequent 12 months: truly holding these groups and counties to account. The ECB auditing and policing that’s going to be vitally vital – and clearly we will play our half in that as effectively.

“In the mean time, typically you will have three counties operating a selected regional aspect and at instances, there is a lack of accountability, an absence of possession. The new system could have that in abundance shifting forwards – which I feel is an efficient suppose. Gamers really feel actually strongly about having equal entry to services and coaches, and never feeling like a spare half.”

The PCA and the ECB have verbally agreed on a minimal squad measurement of 15 for the new Tier 1 groups, in addition to equalising the minimal wage for feminine and male cricketers. These commitments will probably be formalised in the up to date model of the County Partnership Settlement (CPA) which can cowl 2025-29.

“In the mean time, you have received some feminine gamers basically working two jobs to attempt to make ends meet,” Mitchell stated. “It is about us ensuring these minimal salaries are at an acceptable degree, equal to the lads’s minimal salaries. That is vital to allow gamers to turn out to be skilled, and we have had that verbally agreed. That could be a actually vital step.

“The gamers perceive that the sport has come a great distance in a comparatively brief time frame. They’re definitely enthusiastic about having full squads of 15… that is been a problem in dressing rooms up and down the nation, with the have and the have-nots {of professional} after which pay-as-you-play gamers. It has been a troublesome dynamic.

“Gamers are actually excited concerning the counties taking possession. There’s undoubtedly a way that they need the ‘one membership, two workforce’ mentality that we have seen in the Hundred over the past couple of years. There will probably be some teething issues, however the general feeling is that it’s going to be constructive for the sport, and transfer the women’s recreation forwards.”

These “teething issues” embody the prospect of gamers relocating, and a swathe of new home contracts being signed over the course of the summer time. “The unknown brings some anxiousness,” Mitchell stated, “however I feel getting a base, a long-term contract and a mortgage is one thing that excites gamers too – and that capability to plan their life for the subsequent time frame.”

Eight counties will probably be unsuccessful in their bids to host Tier 1 groups, however Mitchell pre-emptively inspired them not to hand over on investing in women’s cricket. “The tender course of has made counties actually take into consideration how they can incorporate the women’s recreation correctly inside their constructions… hopefully, these eight which can be unsuccessful turn out to be Tier 2 groups and put simply as a lot emphasis on constructing foundations beneath the highest tier.”

The Hundred got here up repeatedly in the PCA’s pre-season conferences with gamers, and Mitchell is assured that the doubtless modifications in the competitors’s possession mannequin – which can see groups opened up to non-public funding – will profit feminine gamers. “Lots of the dialogue in the media has been centred across the males’s recreation, however behind the scene there’s so much concerning the women’s recreation as effectively,” he stated.

“Take a look at the way in which the Hundred has been marketed by the ECB: it is extremely a lot about an equal platform. I do not suppose anybody is aware of precisely what goes to be on the market and the way, however there will certainly be some actually vital caveats round traders investing equally in the lads’s and women’s Hundred… we’ll be ensuring that whoever is shopping for into these groups is totally dedicated to each the lads’s and women’s recreation.”