As the BCCI disclosed the contracts of the players representing the women’s national team, a disgustingly huge pay gap was seen in the Contracts of the women’s team and the men’s team. The players representing the men’s national side, who were segregated in the grade C (bottom-most) category, earn a sum of ₹1 crore from the Board while veterans like Harmanpreet, Smriti Mandhana and Poonam Yadav who play both the formats and are included in the grade A (top-most) contract of the women’s side earn a sum of ₹50 lakh which is half of what the grade C contracted players earn in the men’s team. Forget about comparing the top-most contracts awarded in the women’s side with the premier contracts of the men’s team which is a sum of ₹7 crore. If you have a look at the issue in detail, it is worth noticing that Kuldeep Yadav who did not feature in most of the matches during the season that went by, because of a bad run of games, earns more than each of the women’s cricketers including their captains.

Another incident occurred last week when a journalist from The Telegraph, Isabelle Westbury, reported that the Indian Women’s team still owed the prize money of the 2020 World Cup from the BCCI where they finished as runner-ups. The Telegraph newspaper has a subscription model so there was no intent of gaining any advertisement revenue which justifies that the news is true. Co-incidentally on the same day, the news was circulated that the Board is ready to distribute the prize money to their players.

The Board has also re-appointed Ramesh Powar as the head coach who was involved in a spat with Mithali Raj during his previous stint with the side.

A huge amount of credit should go to Westbury for putting her career at stake and standing up against a powerful organization like the BCCI and as I write this she has also broke the news that four women cricketers who recently lost their central contracts will not be paid by the BCCI for almost eight months of employment!

As far as money matters are concerned, the BCCI is the richest cricket body in the world therefore they cannot be excused for paying the members of the women’s side unfairly. If they want to have a look at the team’s performance, it has improved by leaps and bounds in the past few years. The two robust finishes as finalists of the world cups held in 2017 and 2020 respectively are a testimony to the team’s growth over the years.

The BCCI was also criticized a few weeks ago when their double standards were exposed. Both the Men’s and the women’s team have entered the bio-bubble in Mumbai on the same date and will also travel to the UK on the same flight. The players were required to submit their negative report 48 hours prior to entering the bubble. But to conduct the covid tests, the BCCI asked each and every member from the men’s team their address so that an appointed agency can handle the testing at their respective homes. Whereas, the members of the women’s team, who will also require a negative report to enter the bubble, were asked to conduct the covid tests at their own expense along with carrying it when they joined the squad.

Soon after, the two captains, Mithali Raj and Harmanpreet Kaur, spoke about how efficiently the BCCI have planned their itenary, fetched their players in chartered flights, conducted their RT-PCR tests etc. in what looked like tweets that were curated by anyone but them.

This was not the end of how the BCCI has overlooked the needs of the women’s team and some of the former cricketers did not hold back from pointing out the mistakes of the board. Ex-Aussie cricketer and current commentator Lisa Sthalekar, lashed out at the BCCI for not communicating with Veda Krishnamurthy, who lost her sister and mother succumb to the deadly virus, as she was a contracted player at that time and taking care of the players in such a dire time is the least that the board could have done. But soon after the news was circulated, Veda tweeted about how the BCCI secretary Jay Shah has been providing strength to her by keeping in touch after she lost her family members.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia’s (CA) treatment of their women’s cricketers should be an eye-opener for the BCCI. Cricket Australia announced a 125% hike in the wages of their women’s team in 2017 along with topping whatever prize money the women’s team would win in the 2020 WC to ensure that it is an equivalent of the men’s team winning the tournament. Along with the PCB, they have also set up a parental leave policy for their cricketers while they are in maternity. Whereas the ECB have firstly, included the women’s teams in the inaugural season of The Hundred – a new format where each side plays 100 deliveries. Secondly, they have announced an equal prize money for the men’s and women’s competition in The Hundred.

Like Lisa Sthalekar mentioned, a cricketers’ association is the need of the hour in the BCCI.

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