Cricket Scotland to offer paid contract to the players in international women's team

Cricket Scotland has announced that it will offer the paid contracts to the players in its international women's team to put it 'onto a fully professional footing'. Scotland Women's team ranks 14th in the current ICC T20I teams chart after failing to qualify for the Women's T20 World Cup 2023, which is scheduled to take place in South Africa in February.

The cricket board of Scotland released a statement on the same stating that the announcement of contract will lead to players devoting more time to training.

"This builds on the move to pay equal match fees to the men's and women's players introduced in 2021 and will enable a number of players to devote more time to training and practice and is a start to putting the women's game onto a fully professional footing," Cricket Scotland said in a statement.

In July 2022, Scottish Cricket was found ‘institutionally racist in an independent review' after the former cricketer Majid Haq's shocking racism allegations towards the board and management in 2021. A few days later, the entire cricket board resigned in the process to overall and modernize the entire system in cricket. The latest statement also promised to deliver more sustainable governing body in the neat future. 

"The new measures will underpin long-term success for the international teams and deliver a more sustainable governing body in the years ahead. The changes are required to refocus the governing body's priorities and to establish a strong financial base from which to launch an ambitious new strategy for the sport in the coming months," the statement added.

This will make cricket in Scotland a fully inclusive sport: Anjan Luthra

Cricket Scotland's new chair, Anjan Luthra, believes that the investment in the women's team will make cricket in Scotland a fully inclusive sport.

"This a watershed moment for the sport of cricket in Scotland. The investment announced today into the women's game is an important building block in our desire to make cricket in Scotland a fully inclusive sport where there is no place for racism, discrimination, or inequalities.

"We have an opportunity to create a bold new vision for our Scottish cricket and we are committed to doing so by driving positive change at every level within our sport.

"At the same time, we are rebuilding capacity within the governing body and addressing the weaknesses and failings identified through the Changing the Boundaries report so that we build a first-class governing body for Scottish cricket," Luthra added.