Wellington Blaze will defend their Twenty20 title starting on Thursday but they won't receive match fees like the men.

Women cricketers join the men under the Twenty20 Super Smash banner for the first time on Thursday.

From December 22, they play televised double-headers on the same pitches at the likes of Seddon Park or the Basin Reserve.

While that's an exciting development for the women's game in New Zealand the pay gap remains as wide as ever: men $575 per game, women $0 per game. No match fee.

The women's competition opens at Lincoln, near Christchurch, on Thursday with a full round running until Sunday, featuring White Ferns stars like Suzie Bates, Sophie Devine and Amy Satterthwaite preparing for next month's Women's World Twenty20 in the Caribbean.

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Whilst the top 15 White Ferns are on annual retainers ranging from $21,000 to $35,000, plus match fees of $310 per T20 international and $420 per one-day international, they won't earn a cent from their domestic T20 appearances in what is still an amateur competition despite the new bells and whistles.

KAI SCHWOERER/GETTY IMAGES White Ferns stars like Sophie Devine will play the opening weekend of domestic Twenty20 but earn the bulk of their money playing in Australia and England.

They make their big money overseas, in the Australian and England competitions from which Bates, Devine and Satterthwaite can boost their annual earnings over $100,000, Stuff understands.

Meanwhile the Wellington Blaze players who aren't centrally contracted like Devine and teenage star Amelia Kerr will collect a daily allowance of around $50 for the next four days' work.

In the words of one person connected with the women's game: "NZ Cricket are going to have to move with the times. Other countries certainly are. They are moving, but not fast enough."

Even cashed up Northern Districts won't be paying its Spirit players after its plans to match the men's fee of $575 in televised double-headers was stymied by NZC.

No one would speak on the record but Stuff was told a senior figure at NZC told ND officials such a payment would jeopardise the upcoming negotiations for the White Ferns Memorandum of Understanding which expires on July 31 next year.

JOHN DAVIDSON/PHOTOSPORT Northern Spirit were set to be paid the same as their male counterparts for T20 double-headers but the plan was stymied.

Other major associations, in a much tighter financial state, couldn't commit to such a payment. The men's match fees come from the NZC player payment pool, signed off in this year's new Master Agreement.

NZC public affairs manager Richard Boock said in a statement it welcomed "all initiatives which help grow the women's game in a sustainable and meaningful fashion."

But he added the decision to pay domestic women players or not was Northern Districts' alone (ND has previously paid its women players, it is understood).

It's a similar situation in rugby, where Farah Palmer Cup players are amateurs, in televised matches alongside the men's Mitre 10 Cup professionals.

All going well, this may be the last season of such a pay disparity in cricket's Super Smash. A professional women's T20 competition looks likely.

Said Boock: "We're in the early stages of discussing (with the NZCPA and MAs) the process for the new women's MoU, which is likely to cover all women's professional cricket rather than solely the White Ferns. We have agreed on an aligned and collective approach."

BRUCE LIM/PHOTOSPORT The Knights begin their T20 Super Smash title defence on December 22 and will receive match fees of $575 as per the Master Agreement with NZC.

New Zealand Cricket Players' Association boss Heath Mills said negotiations for the new women's MoU would start in the next few months, and was an opportunity to look at the women's game as a whole.

The NZCPA's starting point was development of players into the White Ferns, a potential winter programme and NZA schedule as the men's game had adopted. "In our conversations with players that's a priority for them."

Mills hadn't received complaints from domestic women players about a lack of payment. Currently the NZCPA represents only the 15 contracted White Ferns, but that will likely change.

"We're not sure yet what investment NZC is going to make in the domestic game and once we understand that, that will drive any decisions we make around getting alongside the domestic women players and advocating for remuneration in that environment," Mills said.

"I would definitely think in the years ahead we will see the women's game at domestic level professionalised, but whether that's a five or 10 year plan I don't know. That depends on what NZC chooses to invest in."

AT A GLANCE

Women's Twenty20 Super Smash, round one, Thursday:

Auckland Hearts v Otago Sparks, Central Hinds v Northern Spirit, Canterbury Magicians v Wellington Blaze, all 2.30pm at Lincoln.

* All sides play one full round from Thursday to Sunday, before double-headers get under way on December 22.