"Money is always motivating" - Nigar Sultana on ICC's decision to offer equal prize money for men's and women’s cricket
Bangladesh women's captain Nigar Sultana termed the ICC's decision to offer equal prize money to men's and women's cricket as a motivating factor. She opined that with their decision the ICC has ensured that there would be no discrimination between men's and women's cricket.
In a landmark decision, the ICC announced the decision to distribute equal prize money for men's and women’s cricket following the governing body's Annual Conference held in Durban, South Africa, in July 2023.
Speaking of the upcoming 2024 Women's T20 World Cup, the ICC announced details of the prize money for the event earlier this month. The total prize pool for the 2024 edition is $7,958,080, more than double that of last year's edition.
The winners will get $2.34 million, while last year's winners Australia got $1 million. Further, each group-stage victory win has a reward of $31,154, up from $17,500 last year. There is prize money for those exiting in the group stage as well.
Sharing her thoughts at the pre-tournament press conference on Tuesday, September 24, Sultana opened up on the significance of monetary rewards. She said (as quoted by Cricbuzz):
"Money is always motivating. Its good and great initiative by ICC and it seems at least ICC is not making any discrimination. This is a good thing and in women's cricket we are seeing that lot of changes are made and that is happening in Bangladesh as well so for the whole team it looks like if we can do well can achieve good thing in life. So from that point of view it really makes us happy."
The 2024 edition of the Women's T20 World Cup will be held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from October 3 to October 20. On Tuesday, September 24, the ICC announced an all-female panel of umpires and match referees for the tournament.
"I have played four World Cups but we have never won a game in those editions" - Nigar Sultana
Bangladesh have not won a match in the Women's T20 World Cup in a decade. Their last triumph in the tournament came when they beat Sri Lanka in Sylhet in 2014. Sultana acknowledged that the team is hungry to break the drought. The 27-year-old said in the same interaction:
"I have played four World Cups but we have never won a game in those editions. The last time we won was in the 2014 tournament. We have played well in previous editions but playing well only means something when you can win."
"We want to win the first match. It will be a huge achievement for the team. The team will get into a flow when that happens. We can then dream of something bigger," Sultana added.
Bangladesh will kick off the 2024 Women's T20 World Cup with a match against Scotland in Sharjah on October 3. They will then face England on October 5, West Indies on October 10, and South Africa on October 12.