The 15th BCCI Apex Council meeting proved to take a step towards bridging the pay gap between the female cricketers and their male counterparts of the National Cricket team by implementing the ‘pay equity policy,’ as announced by Jay Shah (Secretary of the Board of Cricket Council of India and the president of the Asian Cricket Council) through a tweet:

I’m pleased to announce @BCCI’s first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing pay equity policy for our contracted @BCCIWomen cricketers. The match fee for both Men and Women Cricketers will be same as we move into a new era of gender equality in 🇮🇳 Cricket. pic.twitter.com/xJLn1hCAtl

— Jay Shah (@JayShah) October 27, 2022

While the decision is laudable in terms of reducing the gender disparity in the context of the financial gap but it will only be effective when the number of matches played by the Women’s Cricket team is at par with that of the male Cricket team.

With the implementation of the policy, the pay of women cricketers has increased significantly. While the current pay was Rs 2.5 Lakhs for a Test match will now be Rs 15 Lakhs and Rs 1 Lakh for a One Day International (ODI) or Twenty-20 (T20) will now be increased to Rs 6 Lakhs for ODI and Rs 3 Lakhs for T20 International.

Closure of the pay parity between Indian men and women cricketers reflects the extent to which the women’s cricket realm in our nation has changed and become more inclusive. From bagging a silver medal in the inaugural Commonwealth Games to winning the 2022 Asia Cup and making it to the finals of 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup the ‘women in blue‘ have proven themselves that they are no less than their male peers.

Although the annual contract fees for all male and female cricketers is fixed and a gap remains there too, the equitable payrolls in the match fees is a monumental increment for all the women cricketers of the national team.