In a historic announcement on Tuesday (September 17), the International Cricket Council (ICC) said that the prize money for the Women’s T20 World Cup 2024 will be the same as that given to the men’s winners earlier in the year. At the ICC’s annual summit in July, a decision was made regarding the same. 

The event will take place in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the winners will take home USD 2.34 million. This represents a remarkable 134% increase over the USD 1 million that Australia was given when they won their sixth title in South Africa in 2023. Similarly, the runners-up will now receive USD 1.17 million, a 134% increase over the USD 500,000 South Africa received for making it to their first-ever home final.

The two losing semi-finalists will now receive USD 675,000 apiece (compared to USD 210,000 in 2023), and the total prize money will be USD 7,958,080, a 225% increase over the USD 2.45 million awarded in the previous edition. This means that, almost seven years ahead of the governing body’s initial schedule of 2030, the ninth edition of the Women’s T20 World Cup is the first event in the history of the ICC to achieve prize money equity.

“This move is in line with the ICC’s strategy to prioritize the women’s game and accelerate its growth by 2032,” ICC said in a statement. “Teams will now receive equal prize money for the equivalent finishing position at comparable events as well as the same amount for winning a match at those events. The ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 event prize money is only higher on account of 10 additional teams participating and 32 more matches played.”

The individual game winners in the group stages will receive USD 31,154, while the six teams eliminated before the semifinals will split a pool of USD 1.35 million based on their results. This is a change from the USD 180,000 pool that was split equally in 2023. While the teams who place fifth in their respective groups will receive USD 135,000, the teams that place third or fourth in their group will receive USD 270,000 each.

There has also been a slight change in the schedule of the World cup. The October 5 doubleheader in Sharjah will now have Australia playing Sri Lanka in the afternoon and Bangladesh playing England in the evening, according to a change issued by the ICC.

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