England captain Heather Knight has criticised the disparity between men’s and women’s salaries in The Hundred.

The gap in pay between the top men’s and women’s players has widened from £75,000 to £135,000 for this year’s competition.

Top level men’s players will see their pay increase by 60% to £200,000, while leading women’s salaries are rising 30% to £65,000, as part of an overall 25% rise across all salary bands.

In the lowest-earning category, men will be paid £31,000, up from £30,000 in 2024, while women will earn £10,000, up from £8,000.

“It’s great to see the overall pot for the women has gone up but it looks bad when the disparity between the top men’s and women’s salaries continues to grow when it should be coming down,” said Knight.

“There’s a huge amount of money coming into the game so we want to see that the whole game is benefitting.

“You don’t want that gap to widen, you want to continue to make progress.”

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) said both men’s and women’s salary pots were raised by around 25% in the latest increase and that women’s salaries alone increased by £800,000 in 2023.

An ECB spokesperson added: “In the men’s game, the latest increase was weighted towards the top end in order to be competitive in the global market.

“In the women’s game, the increase was spread across the salary bands because we need to make more progress across the board.”

Knight added the new tiered domestic set-up was an exciting time for the women’s game as eight professional teams merge with the men’s counties.

The 33-year-old has signed for Somerset in the new system and was speaking at the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) annual general meeting, where Warwickshire bowler Oliver Hannon-Dalby was confirmed as PCA chair, replacing Glamorgan’s James Harris.

Hannon-Dalby also said The Hundred salaries is an area for improvement to consider during his time in the role.

He said: “The salary gap got bigger this year despite the ECB saying it would get smaller, so looking to improve that in the coming year or two will be an important thing.”

The ECB recently oversaw the sales of stakes in the eight Hundred franchises, with the teams achieving a collective value of over £975m, bringing in around £520m to be split across the game in this country.

“We are totally committed to moving towards gender parity in salaries, but The Hundred exists in a global landscape and we have to be competitive within that,” said an ECB spokesperson.

“We are excited about private investment benefitting the whole game and helping us accelerate our journey towards gender parity for pay in The Hundred.”