00:00Will India's women cricketers be paid the same as the men in blue?
00:03Technically yes, but there's a catch.
00:05BCCI Secretary Jay Shah said that to end gender inequality,
00:09the women will get the same match fee as the men now.
00:13Amid the ongoing T20 World Cup,
00:15this is a huge announcement coming from the world's richest cricket body, BCCI.
00:19We need to look at the women's cricket.
00:21Women's cricket is also now coming into the forefront.
00:24The BCCI Secretary implemented a pay equity policy
00:28for India's centrally contracted women cricketers.
00:31Under this policy, the women will earn Rs 15 lakh for a test match,
00:34Rs 6 lakh for one-day international matches,
00:37and Rs 3 lakh for every T20 international match.
00:40This is a significant hike from the flat Rs 1 lakh that the women cricketers get
00:45for every ODI and T20 international match,
00:48and Rs 4 lakh for every test match.
00:50The Indian women's cricket team has been in splendid form in recent months.
00:54Led by Harmanpreet Kaur, the women in blue clinched a historic silver
00:58at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
01:00They followed it up with a record-clean sweep
01:02in the ODI series against England in September.
01:04Earlier this month, Indian women beat Sri Lanka
01:07to win their seventh Asia Cup title.
01:11Shah described BCCI's move as the first step towards tackling discrimination.
01:16But here's the catch.
01:17As far as the contracts are concerned,
01:19there are no changes to the BCCI's annual contracts for the women players.
01:23The contracts are divided into three categories.
01:26Grade A, which pays Rs 50 lakh annually,
01:29Grade B, which pays Rs 30 lakh per year,
01:31and Grade C, which pays Rs 10 lakh per year.
01:34Six cricketers fall in the Grade A category,
01:37including captain Harmanpreet Kaur,
01:38vice-captain Smriti Mandhana,
01:40and leg-spinner Poonam Yadav.
01:42In comparison, male cricketers are divided into four categories.
01:46The A-plus category, comprising the likes of Virat Kohli,
01:50Rohit Sharma, and Jaspreet Pumra,
01:52earn Rs 7 crore per year.
01:54Then come the Grade A players,
01:56like KL Rahul, Ravichandran Ashwin,
01:58Ravindra Jareja, and Rishabh Bant.
02:00They make Rs 5 crore annually.
02:02The Grade B and C male cricketers
02:04pocket Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore, respectively.
02:08In comparison, women cricketers in India
02:10still have a long way to go
02:11before they're actually paid as much as the men.
02:14Earlier this year, New Zealand cricket
02:15became the first cricket board in the world
02:17to introduce equal pay for its men and women cricketers.
02:20Meanwhile, Cricket Australia is also working
02:23to do away with gender disparity.
02:25If you keep the contracts and the match fees aside,
02:27the announcement of the first women's IPL,
02:29which is supposed to take place next year,
02:32is another high point for women's cricket in India.
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