"We Got Rs 1,000 Per Match": Mithali Raj's Shocking Disclosure On 2005 World Cup Resurfaces
The state of women's cricket in India 20 years ago painted a completely different picture to the one today, as had been earlier revealed by former captain Mithali Raj.
- The early struggles faced by women cricketers in India were revealed by ex-captain Mithali Raj
- Raj revealed there were no match fees or annual contracts during her early playing days
- "No annual contracts. No match fees. We were given Rs 1,000 per match for finishing runners-up in 2005": Raj
Things are on the up for women's cricket in India. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led Indian women's cricket team has won the Women's World Cup 2025 in a historic first for the nation. The triumph has led to India winning the largest-ever prize sum in Cricket World Cup history - USD 4.48 million (approximately Rs 39.78 crore). The team has also been rewarded a further Rs 51 crore by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). However, not too long ago, things weren't so rosy for Indian women's cricket. In an interview, legendary Indian batter Mithali Raj had once revealed the stark differences between her playing days and today.
Mithali, who is by some distance the highest run-scorer in women's ODI history, had revealed that Team India players were awarded only Rs 1,000 per match despite finishing runners-up in the Women's World Cup 2005.
Between 1973 and 2006, women's cricket in India was governed by the Women's Cricket Association of India (WCAI). The WCAI was merged into the BCCI in November 2006.
"There were no annual contracts. There were no match fees. When we finished runners-up in the Women's World Cup 2005, we were given Rs 1,000 per match. Just for that tournament. We didn't have any match fees otherwise," Mithali had revealed, in an interview with Lallantop earlier this year.
"There was absolutely no money in the sport, so where would we get match fees from?" Mithali had stated.
"These (match fees and annual contracts) started when things came under the BCCI. First, we were given per series, then per game, and only recently has there been pay equity with the men's team," Mithali had added.
In a landmark announcement in October 2022, the then-BCCI secretary Jay Shah had announced that players of both the men's and women's Indian cricket teams would receive equal match fees. This equated to Rs 15 lakh to each player per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI and Rs 3 lakh per T20I.
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