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Cape Town - Cricket South Africa (CSA) acting CEO Thabang Moroe wants to see the country's women and men cricketers treated equally, and that means that they must be paid the same.
That is the hope and one of the key discussions taking place between CSA and the South African Cricketers' Association (SACA) as they seek to sign off on a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by June 30 at the latest.
A new MOU was due to be agreed on by the start of this month, but negotiations between CSA and SACA had not begun in time and they ultimately missed the deadline.
The new MoU will seek to establish a financial model that ensures that South Africa's cricket players are looked after financially, and Moroe is rallying for the Proteas women's side, specifically, to benefit.
"The changes in the financial model are not aimed at taking away from players," he told Sport24.
"The financial model is actually aimed at getting together the few bits and pieces that will help CSA cater for the semi-professional cricketers as well as the Protea ladies.
"It's high time that CSA puts its money where its mouth is. We’ve been saying that we want to look after our women cricketers and get them to a place where they are treated the same as the men’s professional cricketers.
"We want them to be paid the same."
Talks between CSA and SACA got underway at the beginning of this week and, according to Moroe, negotiations are on track to meet the June 30 deadline.
"The discussions are pretty well advanced," Moroe said.
"We've moved much quicker than both parties expected.
"We sat the whole day yesterday (Tuesday) negotiating on the financial model. We said what we weren't happy about, Tony (Irish, SACA CEO) and his team told us what they were not happy about, but at the end of the day we all shook hands and appreciated each other's time and effort."
Moroe added that the June 30 deadline was a worst-case scenario, and that if possible the new MOU would be agreed on before then.
