England captain Heather Knight says widening gender pay gap for top players in The Hundred 'not ideal'

England captain Heather Knight says it is "not ideal" that the gender pay gap for the top players in The Hundred will widen in the 2025 season.

The top bracket of men's players will earn £200,000, with the equivalent in the women's competition taking £65,000, a discrepancy of £135,000 compared to £75,000 in 2024.

Overall, women's salaries have increased by 30 per cent with the men's up 60 per cent.

In band seven - the lowest earning category - men will be paid £31,000 and women £10,000, up from £30,000 and £8,000 respectively in 2024.

Speaking ahead of England's Test against South Africa - which is live on Sky Sports Cricket from Sunday (8am first ball) - Knight said: "The pay has risen in the women's section, which is great, but I guess people look at the top bands, don't they?

"There's obviously been quite a big rise in that top band for the men's.

"Ultimately as players, you want to see progress and movement towards parity in pay.

"Especially as the competition is a brilliant competition, putting the men's and women's teams on the same page which is a really cool thing.

"It doesn't look great. It's great that progress has been made but it's not ideal that that top band in the men's game has disproportionately gone up from the rest of the pack."

Knight captained London Spirit to The Hundred title in 2024 as her side beat Welsh Fire in the final at Lord's.

Hundred tournament director Rob Hillman said of the updated pay brackets: "That we are now offering four times what we were able to offer in the first year of the women's competition is telling of the game's continued growth, and clearly not the end of our journey."

The Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket recommended in 2023 that there should be matching salaries in The Hundred by 2025 but speaking to the BBC, England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive Richard Gould said: "The gap has got bigger because of market dynamics.

"That wasn't a recommendation we said we could deliver on and we have been very up front on that.

"We have seen a significant increase in the salaries we have been able to put into the women's game. I'm really looking forward to the point every county club in the country now has a women's team.

"I think in five years' time, we'll look back and go, 'How did it take us this long?' But I think that's a really, really significant step for us."

Gould also told the media that the sale of stakes in the eight Hundred teams - Spirit, Fire, Oval Invincibles, Northern Superchargers, Manchester Originals, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets and Birmingham Phoenix - was "progressing at pace."

The number of interested parties has been whittled down from more than 100 and includes IPL franchise owners and American business groups, who are vying for a 49 per cent share in their chosen side.

Gould said: "Over the last week or so, the second-round bids have been coming in. We've got global interest from most of the best sports investors you would expect to see.

"My hope is that this will recapitalise the county game for the next 20-25 years, if that money is used really well.

"We're not counting our chickens yet but the aim of this is to raise significant investment that is going to go into the game.

"If we hadn't met our internal targets we wouldn't have proceeded. We can now proceed at pace and with some confidence."