SYDNEY (AP) — Australia’s cricketers have created a “fighting fund" to help the country’s elite netball players amid a bitter pay dispute.
Officials are still confirming the finer details of the deal, but the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) on Wednesday said the fund would be created for their counterparts in netball, a basketball-style professional sport played predominately by women.
The netball players have been off contract since Sept. 30. Part of the dispute involves the players’ push for a revenue-sharing model, rather than a profit-share deal proposed by the eight Super Netball clubs and Netball Australia.
Netball Australia has been criticized over the past year for its choice of sponsorship dollars. It has the highest women's participation rate for any sport in Australia, with organizers estimating 1 million players nationwide.
The most recent pay issue came to a head last week with both the Australian Netball Players Association (ANPA) and Netball Australia criticizing each other in the lead-up to Australia’s Constellation Cup series against New Zealand.
Australia’s cricketers — many of the male players are currently competing at the Cricket World Cup in India — have previously fought hard to maintain a revenue-sharing model in the sport, including in their own pay dispute with Cricket Australia in 2017.
That is part of the reason why players have agreed to pay out of their own pocket to assist the country’s netballers, cricketers association chief executive Todd Greenberg said
No monetary details were provided.
“Much like our female players in 2017, the netballers at the moment are leaning on friends and family for financial support.” Greenberg said. “What is disappointing is that the netballers’ requests are modest and affordable for the sport. The ACA believes they should be given the same partnership opportunities as our players — the same opportunities that has seen cricket thrive."
Australia women's cricket captain Alyssa Healy witnessed the enthusiasm and professional passion from her netball colleagues by attending an international game last week.
“There were 10,000 watching, sponsors everywhere, the product was amazing, and there was a line for merchandise out the door," Healy said. “Netball’s got to have money, so I refuse to believe it’s a poor sport the way I have watched it unfold. As a female athlete, watching what netball is going through makes me really said.”
The Australian women's cricket team is coming off series wins over West Indies in the one-day and Twenty20 format. The domestic Women's Big Bash T20 league starts this week for professional players across Australia.
Natalie Medhurst, who won three world championship titles as part of Australia's netball team and now works in cricket as a player development manager in Perth, thanked the cricketers' union.
“As a netballer now working in cricket, I am completely blown away by this unprecedented show of support for our cricketers,” she wrote in a social media post.
Kathryn Harby-Williams, chief executive of the netball players association, praised the netballers for being “brave and resilient people.”
“It lets the netballers know they are not alone.”
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