The (Australian) Daily Telegraph has a long article on the simmering row between Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricketers’ Association over who pays the salaries in the rapidly professionalising women’s structure over there.

The piece is worth reading, but if you are in a hurry the TLDR is this: CA would like the girls to be paid out of the pot already allocated for professional cricketers; while the ACA say this money was set aside just for the men and CA need to stump-up additional sums for the women.

The article does though contain one significant factual error:

“What has annoyed some female players is that while they’re the No. 1 team in the world and hold the Ashes, they’ll earn an average of $85,000…” [Emphasis ours.]

In fact, the “average of $85,000” figure not is correct – $85,000 (c. £40,000) is not an average but a maximum, earned by the handful of players who are on the top-tier contracts – the likes of Lanning, Blackwell and Perry. Other Southern Stars regulars – the Alyssa Healys and Nicole Boltons – earn a lot less than this, and the average is probably considerably less than half of the $85,000 quoted.

This is not to say that things in Australia aren’t going in the right direction – they indubitably are – or that the Telegraph aren’t making an important point… but getting the facts right nevertheless always helps!