Australia's male cricketers "dipped into their own pockets to help their female counterparts pay for private health insurance," according to Nicholson & Bailey of THE AGE. They will contribute A$500,000 ($355,360) to the Female Private Health Insurance Scheme "launched by the Australian Cricketers' Association this summer, so all 111 women's domestic and Southern Stars representatives will be covered for at least the next two years." It is "not uncommon" for professional athletes to have to pay for their own high-level health insurance, but that "often poses a greater problem for women athletes, who do not command the same-sized pay packets as men." Southern Stars vice-captain Alex Blackwell said, "It's nice to know that some of that has gone towards helping the female members. I think it's a great initiative from the ACA and the male players to dip into those existing funds, which come under an existing agreement with Cricket Australia." A profit surplus resulting from last year's World Cup and cancelled Champions League tournament "meant additional funds in the player pool would normally have been distributed across the male players." However, with the involvement of the ACA, "the men agreed to transfer the money to give the game's female players automatic health coverage." The news comes before the ACA's next meeting with CA at the end of February, "where a women's memorandum of understanding covering travel, accommodation, superannuation, scheduling and insurance will be discussed" (THE AGE, 2/10).
