The retirement of former Pakistan’s cricket team captain, Sana Mir, the first bowler for Pakistan to take 100 wickets in WODIs, necessitated a new approach surrounding the women’s cricket team. Sana Mir’s retirement means nine central contracts this year, as opposed to 10 last year. Her exit will be a loss to the Pakistan women cricket team which will be hard to overcome; thus recalling the need to invest to keep up the good pace of the team. The more the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) invests into the cricket team, the better the performance, and the more women’s cricket flourishes.
PCB has taken some steps in the right direction. By increasing salaries across the board for the country’s top women cricketers, as well as more lucrative financial incentives for domestic cricket the aim is to level the playing field just a little bit more. Enhancing the match fee and prize money for domestic events by 100 percent, domestic daily allowance raised by 50 percent also has the same goal in mind, to bridge the immense gap in funding for the teams of both genders.
These initiatives by the PCB are welcome, considering that women’s cricket has suffered setbacks in the last two years. In 2018, 17 women were awarded central contracts, but now this number has almost been halved. The salary increase seems to be a way for the PCB to balance out those shortcomings and encourage women’s cricket.
It is hoped the PCB keeps taking positive developments with regards to the women’s cricket team, which has shown incredible potential. As the team prepares to be featured in the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup Qualifier and the ACC Women’s T20 Cup in the next 12 months, we hope that the players will show us the fruits of this investment and make the country proud.