Pay hike in women’s cricket – a glass half full or half empty?

Is women’s cricket in India finally moving towards gender equality? The positive vibes at the news of BCCI announcing equal pay for women’s national teams across all formats earlier this week makes us believe that it’s a step in the right direction – but there are still miles to go.

The richest cricket board in the world may be the third country after New Zealand and Australia to announce equal pay for men and women’s counterparts – but the rise will certainly make a significant impact in the earnings of Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. The fees for each Test match for the women rises – as you know by now – from the existing Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 15 lakh, while the ones for ODIs and T20 Internationals go up from a flat Rs one lakh to six and three lakhs, respectively.

It’s a promising start from the BCCI, though one needs to scratch the surface and find out if the benefits will trickle down beyond the likes of elite players like a Harmanpreet Kaur or Smiriti Mandhana.

The BCCI has been smart enough to follow up the announcement of Women’s IPL in March, 2023 with that of pay parity. The three-team affair at a single venue, which the BCCI used to shoehorn during the men’s IPL for the past few years – had been an apology of the event but all that is expected to change with the five teams in fray playing on a home-and-away basis.

However, a major area of concern towards a full-fledged IPL, often voiced by the BCCI mandarins in the past, had been the lack of a sizeable pool of uncapped women players unlike their men counterparts. The proposed event is now expected to see each team registering a minimum of 12 Indian players and six overseas recruits per team – thereby opening up 60 berths for homegrown players.

‘’It could be a life-changing experience for several uncapped players, but we need to take one step at a time,’’ Diana Edulji, former India captain and an erstwhile member of the CoA in charge of BCCI, said recently. A big question, of course, remains on the quality of the pool of the domestic players as they can only provide depth to the competition – and the board needs to take a hard look at the pay packages at the domestic and age group cricket as well.

Looking at the bigger picture about the so-called equal pay, it’s also a question of looking at the glass half-full or half-empty. Make no mistake, there is still a yawning gap in the amount of central contract fees between the men and women’s players. A Grade A men’s player makes Rs five crores annually (likes of a KL Rahul or Ravi Ashwin) while the Grade A+ men’s player (the elite trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah) earns seven crores each. Compare that to a women’s A grader (Harmanpreet Kaur) who gets Rs 50 lakhs, while those in Grades B and C earn Rs 30 lakhs and Rs 10 lakhs, respectively. 

Looking at the bigger picture about the so-called equal pay, it’s also a question of looking at the glass half-full or half-empty. Make no mistake, there is still a yawning gap in the amount of central contract fees between the men and women’s players. A Grade A men’s player makes Rs five crores annually (likes of a KL Rahul or Ravi Ashwin) while the Grade A+ men’s player (the elite trio of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah) earns seven crores each. Compare that to a women’s A grader (Harmanpreet Kaur) who gets Rs 50 lakhs, while those in Grades B and C earn Rs 30 lakhs and Rs 10 lakhs, respectively. 

The other critical factor is, of course, the contrast between the volume of cricket in the FTP of India’s men and women cricketers. The Women in Blue are scheduled to play only two Tests, 27 ODIs and 36 T20Is during their FTP cycle between 2022-25 and the T20 World Cup in South Africa early next year – compare that to the choc-a-bloc bilateral fixtures for Rohit Sharma & Co.

The divide is still a sharp one – with the star appeal among the women’s players being limited to the top-10 to 15 players. It will be somewhat Utopian to expect they will be at the same plane with their men counterparts, though it’s heartening to see the BCCI making a few decisive moves!