The long-awaited call by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on ‘Equal Pay for Equal Work’ is finally answered which comes out to the public as a landmark and historic move as the board has announced equal pay for all centrally contracted men and women cricketers.
BCCI Secretary, Mr Jay Shah put out a Tweet stating, “I’m pleased to announce @BCCI’s the first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing a pay equity policy for our contracted @BCCIWomen cricketers. The match fee for both Men and Women Cricketers will be the same as we move into a new era of gender equality in Cricket”.
He further added, “The BCCIWomen cricketers will be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts. Test (INR 15 lakhs), ODI (INR 6 lakhs), T20I (INR 3 lakhs). Pay equity was my commitment to our women cricketers and I thank the Apex Council for their support. Jai Hind 🇮🇳.”
New Zealand women cricketers were the first to get the taste of “Equal Pay for Equal Work” and in an absolute progressive move, the BCCI in a fair while has adopted the necessary change for the betterment of women’s cricket.
Well done BCCI 👏 #CricketTwitter #TeamIndia pic.twitter.com/hC7DqjbU8U
— Female Cricket (@imfemalecricket) October 27, 2022
The difference in the number of matches surely is a factor that does create a huge sum difference, nevertheless with the International Cricket Council (ICC) getting started with the Future Tour Programme (FTP) this time around for women cricketers as well, one would hope with time, there’ll be busy FTP’s moving forward which will result in closing out on the gap between the total sum.
Reacting to Mr Secretary’s Tweet, former Indian skipper and an icon of women’s cricket, Mithali Raj commented, “This is a historic decision for women’s cricket in India! The pay equity policy along with the WIPL next year, we are ushering into a new era for women’s cricket in India. Thank you @JayShah Sir & the @BCCI for making this happen. Really happy today.”
The BCCI contracted players fall under 3 grades; Grade A, where players receive ₹50 lakh annually, Grade B, where players receive ₹30 lakhs and Grade C, where players receive ₹10 lakhs annually. These contracts were supposed to be renewed in September 2022, but when there wasn’t any such update, there was a little buzz around a big possible change, but for it to be “Equal Pay for Equal Work” wasn’t the most likeliest.
India’s all-format skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur called the day a red letter one in stating, “Truly a red letter day for Women’s Cricket in India with pay parity announced for women and men. Thank you @BCCI and @JayShah.”
The Indian women’s team has only moved from strength to strength as the side after missing out on qualifying for the knockouts at the ODI World Cup in New Zealand, didn’t look back and went on to register successful outings in the global events that followed, it be the Commonwealth Games where India clinched Silver or the Asia Cup where India got hands on their 7th title.
In bilateral cricket too the women’s team recently registered a historic series win in England and shortly after were rewarded with confirmation on two much-awaited calls that of the inception of the Women’s Indian Premier League (W-IPL) and the equal pay.