CHORLEY’s Laura Massaro believes squash is heading in the right direction in awarding equal prize money to men and women.

That is despite the fact that the former Albany High School pupil netted £12,300 for winning the world squash title in Malaysia in March, while male compatriot Nick Matthew earned more than twice that, £28,600, for picking up the men’s title.

MORE TOP STORIES:

The 30-year-old thinks that paints a misleading picture of her sport and the efforts it has made towards equality.

“It’s not great when they show the figures for the men and the women with such a big difference,” said Massaro. “But I think it’s important to remember that out of the 36 events that are jointly held for the men and the women, 22 are already equal prize money.

“That’s an increase on previous years and I think it’s going to increase further through 2015 and 2016, so that’s really exciting.”

Massaro has had a 2014 to remember, winning two silver medals for England in Glasgow in the Commonwealth Games as well as the world title, and earlier this week she was named on the six-woman shortlist for the Sunday Times Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year.

And she is confident that her sport will continue to make giant strides in closing the pay gap between men and women that exists in so many other sports.

“Hopefully over the next year or so there’s a chance the men’s and women'’s organisations will actually merge,” she said. “Then it will look like we’re trying to work together and present a bit more of a marketable package to sponsors and media.”

But at the moment there is no sign of the World Open following suit and awarding equal prize money to men and women.

“It’s hard to put an exact date on that,” said Massaro. “I’m just a player trying to do what I can while trying to also be the best squash player I can be.

“But I can definitely see it happening in the future at some point, which is really positive.”