BCCI announces equal pay for men and women cricketers
The pay equity policy will be implemented for centrally contracted players of both genders.
In a historic move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced the much-needed equal pay policy for both male and female cricketers. The measure taken by BCCI will help in promoting gender neutrality amongst sports enthusiasts.
BCCI Honorary Secretary Jay Shah, tweeted, “I’m pleased to announce @BCCI’s 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.”
The centrally contracted female players will be paid at par with their male counterparts as per their bracket cap. In addition, the newly introduced system will also reward the female players with equal match fees of Rs15 lakh per Test, Rs6 lakh per ODI, and Rs3 lakh per T20I.
Pay inequality has been prevalent across sectors in India for a very long time. In the past a tremendous number of differences in the pay of male and female actors in the entertainment industry have also made headlines, however, little has been done regarding the same yet. The current announcement by the BCCI has surely come as a light at the end of a tunnel and a beginning towards a greater good.
Former Indian captain and a legend in women’s cricket Mithali Raj commented on the joyous news and said, “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.”
