Gloria Steinem once said, “Women are not going to be equal outside the home until men are equal in it.’’ While we may have fancy conversations and promises about undoing gender discrimination and fostering equality between men and women in society, we often lack in manifesting these conversations in real life. However, the recent historic decision by The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) regarding the equal pay system for both men and women cricket players is a huge six in the stadium of gender equality.
The BCCI had announced that it will implement a new equity pay policy (through BCCI Secretary Jay Shah’s official Twitter handle @JayShah) for its contracted women cricketers by paying equal match fees to both men and women cricketers. Both categories of players will get 15 lakhs INR for Test cricket matches, six lakhs INR for One Day (ODI) cricket matches, and three lakhs INR for twenty-over (T20) cricket matches. Earlier, there were visible income disparities between male and female cricketers, as the latter used to earn four lakhs for a test cricket match and one lakh for T20s and ODIs, respectively.
The change comes as a historic moment, mostly because cricket as a sport has always been popularized as a gentleman’s game. The entire cricketing world has always glorified the achievements of male cricket teams. The women’s cricket teams had to fight long and hard to make themselves relevant and noticeable in the world through their constant hard work and dedication. In India, when the country’s entire three billion population is waiting for the male cricket team to end their drought of International Cricket Council (ICC) trophies, the women’s cricket team has won a silver medal in the first edition of cricket in the Commonwealth Games as well as become the champions of the recently held Women Asia Cup in Bangladesh 2022.
Second, for many years, equal pay for men and women in the same profession who put in the same amount of effort has been a point of contention. There are various claims that there are huge income disparities between male and female workers in many work settings, even when they do the same amount of work. As a result, the BCCI’s decision is both an inspiration and a landmark for all other fields of work.
But the BCCI is not the first cricketing association to do so. In July 2022, The New Zealand Cricket Board agreed to a five-year agreement in which women’s international and domestic match fees will be the same as men’s across all formats and competitions. Equity would also be ensured in matters such as travel, accommodation, and the wider playing and training environment.
This equal pay policy will not only provide a special incentive for all the women players who have overcome barriers and societal apprehensions to represent their country in cricket, but it will also motivate and inspire hundreds of other young girls who want to pursue cricket but are constantly discouraged by gendered notions associated with women pursuing sports as a profession.