Equal Pay in Cricket: Indian men and women cricketers to get equal match fee, announces BCCI's Jay Shah

In a historic move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced that Indian cricketers, men and women, will get equal match fees in a move towards achieving pay equity.

It is incredible how far women in sports have come but unfortunately not far enough to be paid as much as their male peers. That’s been the story for a long while for sportswomen in the country and it is all set change with BCCI announcing equal pay for men and women cricketers.

BCCI Honorary Secretary Jay Shah put out a tweet saying, “I’m pleased to announce BCCI’s first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing pay equity policy for our contracted BCCI Women 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 said, “The BCCI Women 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.”

While corporations have been open to the idea of using women in sports as the face of their brands for some time now, there is still a huge disparity in pay when it comes to remuneration for the actual sport these athletes play.

With this move, finally at least cricket would be getting rid of the pay gap for good. The move is being applauded and appreciated by stakeholders in the industry and fans.

Indian cricketer, Mithali Raj who is also the former captain of the India women's national cricket team shared a post on one of her social media handles saying, “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 Jay Shah Sir and the BCCI for making this happen. Really happy today.”

Indian captain Harmanpreet Kaur also left a thank you note on Twitter saying, “Truly a red letter day for Women’s Cricket in India with pay parity announced for women and men. Thank you BCCI and Jay Shah.”