Incoming PCA chair Oliver Hannon-Dalby has welcomed the sudden influx of cash into English cricket brought about through the Hundred sale, and urged the ECB to spend it wisely to address a number of issues, including closing the gender pay gap in the flagship competition.

The veteran Warwickshire seamer, who has been elected as the PCA’s new chair in place of the outgoing James Harris, was speaking on the day the last of the eight Hundred teams, Southern Brave, were sold to GMR group. The co-owners of Delhi Capitals, a majority shareholder in host county Hampshire, valued Brave at £98 million, taking the overall valuation close to £1 billion. In the immediate term, more than £450m has been raised to be spread throughout the professional and recreational game.

The scale of this significant windfall exceeded the ECB expectations, and reinforces the hope of governing body chief executive Richard Gould that the sale will “recapitalise the county game for the next 20 to 25 years”.

One area which Hannon-Dalby believes needs to be address promptly is the pay disparity between the country’s male and female cricketers, which has now widened in the Hundred following 25% rises across the board.

This summer, the top bracket in the men’s competition has risen by 60% to £200,000, while the top women’s salaries have gone up just 30%, to £65,000. A difference of £75,000 last year has now increased to £135,000.

In the lowest band, men will be paid £31,000 (previously £30,000) and the women £10,000 (£8,000). One of the recommendations of 2023’s Independent Commission for Equity in Cricket (ICEC) report was for equal salaries and bonuses in the competition by 2025.

“It’s definitely something we need to address,” Hannon-Dalby said of the pay gap. “By this stage, gender pay was meant to be equal and certainly in the conversations that we’ve had with the ECB in previous years, they said they were going to improve it. And it’s actually probably got wider, hasn’t it? The pay gap’s actually got wider, which is not great.

“It’s simply just not fair is it? It’s not right. And certainly, if the ECB have promised that it’s going to get better and it hasn’t, that’s not right.

“All we can do is ask and all we can do is try. The women’s game in this country is absolutely exploding and its brilliant to see. Certainly, the women’s Hundred has been an absolute success.

“It’s a conversation we need to have and it’s something we need to try. It’s something that I put in my manifesto, it’s something that’s important to our members and something we definitely want to improve.”

Hannon-Dalby is also keen to push for more clarity on the ECB’s new No-Objection Certificates (NOC) policy, which will deny players on red-ball contracts with their counties from taking part in other competitions that clash with the English summer.

The notable exception to the rule is the IPL, which this season will run from March 21 to May 25, encroaching on the start of the English summer. But the main contention over the new stance comes from the fact the PSL is not afforded the same exception, despite concluding more than two weeks earlier, on May 9.

Despite constant back and forth with the PCA and individuals, the ECB has not relented on its stance of treating the IPL differently. After James Vince unofficially retired from first-class cricket to take up a deal with Karahci Kings for the upcoming PSL, Hannon-Dalby sees it as his job to protect the movement of the players he has been elected to represent.

“James Vince, as I understand it, has gone into a white-ball-only deal. And that’s not great, is it? He’s one of the players of his generation, a brilliant, brilliant cricketer. He’s whacked me around Edgbaston plenty of times, so actually not bowling at him next year, as much as it might help my bowling figures… for the health of the county game, we want James Vince playing red-ball cricket.

“[There is] also a bit of disparity between the people able to go to the IPL but then not the PSL. Just on the face of it doesn’t seem very fair. It seems, ‘one rule for one, one rule for the other’.

“I understand there has been a lot of open communication and collaboration with ECB. Getting in the room and talking about how we protect players’ movement moving forward is going to be very important.

“It’s probably more the movement in the winter and the bit of disparity around different competitions having different rules. I think it’s probably the main bone of contention.”

Hannon-Dalby will officially begin his PCA duties at the start of next month, after being ratified at the PCA annual general meeting on March 4. The 35-year-old, who started out at Yorkshire before moving to Warwickshire in 2013, will be the 16th chair of the association, having spent more than 10 years as a PCA representative.