Indian women's cricket team captain Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday took to Twitter to laud the Board of Control for Cricket in India's decision to give the same match fee to contracted women's cricketer as received by their male counterparts. The landmark decision was shared on Twitter by board secretary Jay Shah. "Truly a red letter day for Women's Cricket in India with pay parity announced for women and men. Thank you @BCCI and @JayShah," Harmanpreet wrote.
The Indian cricket board secretary in his tweet mentioned that the apex council of the board had accepted the decision. This comes just days after the BCCI announced that the first season of the women's IPL will be played next year.
"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. The @BCCIWomen cricketers will be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts. Test (INR 15 lakhs), ODI (INR 6 lakhs), T20I (INR 3 lakhs). Pay equity was my commitment to our women cricketers and I thank the Apex Council for their support. Jai Hind," Shah's tweet stated.
Here are some other reactions on BCCI's decision to introduce pay parity in Indian cricket
Interest in Indian women's cricket has been on an upswing ever since the team finished runners-up in the 2017 ICC Women's World Cup. The team has since gone on to reach the final of the T20 World Cup in 2020 and also won the silver medal in the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Earlier this year, the New Zealand Cricket Board had taken a similar decision, announcing that the women's national team and domestic women's players will receive the same match fees as men.