India women cricketers to receive same national appearance fees as men

In a historic move, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Thursday announced equal pay for all centrally contracted men and women Team India cricketers.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah took to Twitter to announce the development. "I'm pleased to announce BCCI's first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing a pay equity policy for our contracted women cricketers. The match fee for both Men and Women Cricketers will be the same as we move into a new era of gender equality in Indian Cricket," Shah tweeted.

According to the current system, Harmanpreet Kaur and Co. will earn match fees of ₹15 lakh per Test, ₹6 lakh per ODI and ₹3 lakh per T20I, the same as their men counterparts.

"The women 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," he added.

The Indian women's team recently won the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, beating Sri Lanka in the final at Sylhet by 8 wickets. They also won India's first-ever medal in cricket at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side lost to Australia in the final and got silver.

Ever since India's performance in the 2017 Women's ODI World Cup in England, where they lost to the hosts in the final, the popularity of women's cricket has seen an unprecedented rise in the country.

BCCI, in its last AGM in Mumbai earlier this month, has also announced the first-ever women's IPL next year with five teams.

Earlier this year, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) had struck a deal with the country's players' association, which enabled the women cricketers to earn as much as the mail players, while Cricket Australia (CA) is also working to do away with gender disparity.