We keep talking a lot about gender equality, but the reality seems always to be very obvious. The first and foremost thing to focus on any sport is to have knowledge completely on the craft.
Board of Control for Cricket in India has revised and introduced new contracts for the Indian cricketers, including the women and domestic players.
#BCCI new contract system (Women) 🇮🇳🏏
A (50 lakhs): M Raj, J Goswami, H Kaur, S Mandhana.
B (30 lakhs): P Yadav, V Krishnamurthy, R Gayakwad, E Bisht, S Pandey, D Sharma.
C (10 lakhs): M Joshi, A Patil, M Meshram, N Parveen, S Verma, P Raut, J Rodrigues, P Vastrakar, T Bhatia.— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 7, 2018
#BCCI new contract system 🇮🇳🏏
A+ (7 Cr.) – Kohli, Rohit, Dhawan, Bhuvi, Bumrah
A (5 Cr.) – Ashwin, Jadeja, Vijay, Pujara, Rahane, Dhoni, Saha
B (3 Cr.) – Rahul, Umesh, Kuldeep, Chahal, Pandya, Ishant, DK
C (1 Cr.) – K Jadhav, M Pandey, Axar, K Nair, Raina, Parthiv, J Yadav— Wisden India (@WisdenIndia) March 7, 2018
But there is a huge gap between the pay scale of male and female players.
The major concern here is that male Cricketers’ matches draw crowd, and thus it generates great revenue. This is the reason for the pay gap which is too extreme to be acceptable. This is because the female cricketers keep the same effort and hours of practice as the male cricketers, yet they are underpaid.
This is rather disgraceful. The entire Women’s Team, paid less than one Saha. The BCCI can quadeuple this without breaking a sweat.
— Lahar Appaiah (@cricketsnob) March 7, 2018
Jayant Yadav (very fine cricketer, and nothing against him) last played for India more than a year ago. That his retainer is worth twice what Mithali Raj’s is says a lot about the way we continue to look at women’s cricket. It’s just not right. #BCCI
— Dileep Premachandran (@SpiceBoxofEarth) March 7, 2018
Dear @BCCI please show your appreciation for women’s cricket by reducing this appalling pay gap. And please negotiate contracts for telecast of their matches. We have an excellent team that a lot of us fans regret not being able to watch perform regularly. pic.twitter.com/rlPMmuTtcU
— Nikhil Mehra (@TweetinderKaul) March 7, 2018
Utterly disgraceful. Can’t digest this discrimination. #BCCI
— RunRun (@RunRun62ru) March 7, 2018
If you look closer at the various pay scales, you can notice that even the highest paid women cricketers are making less than their male counterpart cricketers in the lowest pay category. How is this a fair thing?
This is 2018 and we are still in the stage of giving a ‘chance’ to enter into the field, but apparently, we still do not want to give them the credits. But hey, we have a day for women, just not an equal pay for them.
Read: MS Dhoni Follows Rahul Dravid’s Example, Opts For Pay Cut As He’s Not Playing All Formats