The salary increases in The Hundred women’s competition are a “step in the right direction” with room to “keep chipping away” at improvements, says Kate Cross.

England bowler Cross was in the top bracket for runners-up Northern Superchargers last season.

“It is obviously unbelievable,” Cross said on the BBC’s No Balls podcast.

“£50,000 to play domestic women’s cricket in the UK is mad. It is significantly more than the bottom paid men’s player now too.”

In the first year of The Hundred in 2021, the top women’s players earned £15,000 while the lowest-paid men’s players earned £30,000.

But Cross and No Balls co-host Alex Hartley, who played for Welsh Fire before retiring at the end of last year’s tournament, said there are still areas for improvement around the lowest-paid women’s players, whose pay has increased from £7,500 to £8,000.

“Before anyone comes at me with negative views, I think it’s great,” said Cross.

“My thing is that we just keep putting money in the pockets of the same players that keep getting money put into their pockets.

“I’m sure at some stage there would have been a discussion around a table at the ECB [England and Wales Cricket Board] and that they need to lure players over with money, but they were luring those players over anyway.

“It’s just got to keep going in the right direction and it is. The men’s salary is capped but £8,000 for the women’s lowest-paid player, when the men’s is getting £30,000, is a big difference.

“Hopefully, we can just keep these little wins and keep chipping away.”

In 2023, all of the players in the top salary bracket were either overseas players or England internationals.

Women’s cricket’s domestic set-up is not fully professional, with 80 players contracted by their regional teams and 18 players on full England central contracts.

The average yearly salary for a women’s regional cricketer is £25,000. Some of those who play in The Hundred but are without a domestic contract are still in education or have other jobs.

“When I saw that the bottom one is £8,000 now, I thought surely the top one could go up to maybe £40,000 and you filter it down,” Hartley added.

“Then the players in the bottom bracket and the girls that are having to take time off work and all sorts to play, are able to earn a bit more money.

“The headline is ‘how good is it that women are now earning this?’ – but it is actually only two players per team.”