Two years back, the New Zealand women cricketers earned pay parity with their male counterparts. Match fees of NZ$4000for ODIs and NZ$2500 forT20Is were considered a huge boost for the country’s female cricketers.
But New Zealand Women, who are known as the White Ferns in the circuit, have this time hit the jackpot by winning the T20 World Cup. On Sunday in Dubai, they beat South Africa by 32 runs to pocket a prize of $2.3 million.
Members of the team will split the prize purse between them. That works out at around $155,000 or NZ$256,000 per team member.
It’s a life-changing windfall for players who for years have struggled to achieve financial parity with their male counterparts.
New Zealand’s first-ever victory in the World Cup of cricket’s shortest formatwas a massive surprise. The White Ferns had lost 10 consecutive T20 matches before beating South Africa in a warm-up match.
That pre-tournament success proved a turning point for New Zealand who beat India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, losing only to Australia on the way to the semi-finals.
South Africa ousted six-time champions Australia in a massive upset in the semis, while New Zealand beat the West Indies.
New Zealand made 158/5, batting first in the final, helped by Suzie Bates who made 32, Amelia Kerr who made 43 and Brooke Halliday who made 38. Kerr then took 3/24 and Rosemary Mair 3/25 as New Zealand restricted South Africa to 126/9.
“Pretty unbelievable to be honest,” Mair said.
“Coming into the tournament, all the odds were against us, so for the group to bounce back like they have is unbelievable.
“We just care so much about each other. We’ve been through a lot of lows in the last 18 months, and we’ve just stuck by each other and kept working hard for each other.”
Captain Sophie Devine was leading the New Zealand team for the last time. She and Bates have played in all nine T20 World Cups since the first in 2009. New Zealand reached the final of the first two tournaments in 2009 and 2010, losing to Australia on both occasions.
“This means everything to us,” Bates said. “When you play team sport, you want to be a world champion.
“We’ve fought our way back to the top. (Devie) has been so outstanding leading this team... so calm and believing in us. We’ll probablyhave a cuddle for even longer later because there’s been some dark times that only the people in the (locker room) understand.”
New Zealand were coached to victory by Australian Ben Sawyer and former Black Caps batters Dean Brownlie and Craig McMillan.
The White Ferns’ success was praised on Monday by New Zealand sports minister Chris Bishop. It came at the end of a weekend in which New Zealand also retained sailing’s America’s Cup and the men’s cricket team beat India in a Test in India for the first time in 36 years.
Success after a long wait and a lot of toil is sweet. A fat prize purse makes it sweeter.
With inputs from AP/PTI
