In an historic move to close the gender pay gap, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has increased the match fee of International Women Cricket players. With this announcement, International women cricket players will also receive the same match fee as men cricket players.
Jay Shah, secretary, BCCI announced the pay parity on Twitter. “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 Indian Cricket,” Shah tweeted on October 27.
It is a big jump for the women’s Indian Cricket team as before this decision, the match fee for International women players was Rs 20,000. Now with the revised pay system coming into play, International women players will receive Rs 15 lakh for Test, Rs 6 lakh for ODIs and Rs 3 Lakh for T20s as match fee. It is a 1500 per cent jump in match fee for women cricket players in India!
But there is still a massive gap in the central contract between men’s and women’s cricket in India. Apart from the match fee, players also receive an annual contract pay as per their grade. As of now in women’s cricket, Grade A players receive an annual pay of Rs 50 Lakh which is half of what Grade C players in men’s cricket receive in India. Moreover, in men’s cricket, they also have a ‘A Plus’ grade which includes players such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah.
For Women’s cricket team the central contract pay stricture in 2021-22 is:
Category A (Rs 50 lakh)
Category B (Rs 30 lakh)
Category C (Rs 10 lakh)
For cricket team the central contract pay stricture in 2021-22 is:
Category A+ (Rs 7 crore)
Category A (Rs 5 crore)
Category B (Rs 3 crore)
Category C (Rs 1 crore)
People are hopeful that the BCCI will bring in gender parity in the annual contractual fee gap as well.
