ICC quintuples prize money for women's tournaments up to 2023

England and Australia could be among the teams to benefit from the vastly increased prize money in women's cricket

The International Cricket Council (ICC) has announced a five-fold increase in prize money for global women's competitions from 2016 to 2023.

The ICC board said the increase recognised the "improved standard and professionalism in women's cricket".

Teams will compete for total prize money of $4.4m (£2.9m) during the period, including a pool of $1m (£656,000) for the World Cup in 2017.

The ICC has also increased the prize money on offer in the men's game.

Among the increases, the board has doubled prize money to $1m for sides that top the ICC Test Championship table each year at the cut-off date of 1 April.

It means the total prize money for the top-ranked Test sides and for men's and women's ICC events from 2016-2023 will be $65m (£42.6m), which the ICC said was a 41% increase on the last eight-year cycle.

The governing body has also announced that it will send director Giles Clarke - the former chairman of the England and Wales Cricket Board - and chief executive David Richardson to meet with the International Olympic Committee next month.

Cricket has not been played at the Olympics since 1900 but earlier this year the MCC called for the T20 form of the game to become an Olympic sport.