How Indian Women's Cricket Team's Salaries Compare To Men's
In October 2022, in a landmark moment, then BCCI secretary Jay Shah had announced that Indian women's cricketers would receive the same match fee as their male counterparts.
The Indian women's cricket team are at risk of exiting the Women's World Cup in the league phase for the second tournament in a row. After three consecutive defeats - to South Africa, Australia and England - India could well fail to make it to the semifinals in 2025, despite the tournament being on home soil. If India do exit in the league phase, their results would be a stark contrast to the men's team, who reached the final unbeaten in the Cricket World Cup 2023.
In October 2022, in a landmark moment, then BCCI secretary Jay Shah had announced that Indian women's cricketers would receive the same match fee as their male counterparts. As a result, direct comparisons in results between the men's and women's teams are inevitable.
However, do players of the Indian women's cricket team really get paid the same as the men? Let's take a deeper look.
It must be acknowledged first that both the men and women receive equal match fees - Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI and Rs 3 lakh per T20I.
Another huge development took place earlier in the year, when the International Cricket Council (ICC) announced a record prize money for the Women's World Cup 2025. The total prize pot of USD 13.88 million (Rs 122.5 crore approx) exceeded the pot of the Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 (USD 10 million).
However, when it comes to their central contracts with the board, there is still a significant gap.
The central contracts for Indian men's cricketers are divided into four categories - A+, A, B and C. Grade A+ players earn Rs 7 crore per year. Grade A, B and C players earn Rs 5 crore, Rs 3 crore and Rs 1 crore respectively.
Compared to that, the central contracts for women's cricketers consists of only three categories - A, B and C. Women's cricketers assigned to the Grade A central contract receive Rs 50 lakh, half of what a BCCI Grade C contract for the men.
Grade B and Grade C players among women earn Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh respectively.
An even wider gap can be noticed once franchise cricket salaries are considered. While the highest paid player in the Indian Premier League (IPL), Rishabh Pant, earns Rs 27 crore, the highest paid Women's Premier League (WPL) player, Smriti Mandhana, earns nearly nine times less at Rs 3.4 crore.
India Women
India Cricket Team
Virat Kohli
Rishabh Pant