Pay Equity Policy : BCCI
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced a “pay equity policy”, saying that its centrally-contracted men and women players would get the same match fees.
- The step is a significant move towards bringing gender pay parity as, according to Global Gender Gap Index 2022, at the current rate of progress, it will take 132 years to reach full parity.
- The women players will now get Rs 15 lakh per Test match, Rs 6 lakh for a One-Day International (ODI), and Rs 3 lakh for a T20 International.
- Till now, they were paid Rs 1 lakh for a white-ball match, and Rs 4 lakh for a Test.
- The annual retainership for women cricketers remains the same — Rs 50 lakh for Grade A, Rs 30 lakh for Grade B and Rs 10 lakh for Grade C.
- The men, who play more games, are paid Rs 1-7 crore, depending on their grade.
- India has become only the second country in international cricket to implement equal pay.
- New Zealand Cricket (NZC), in 2022, had struck a deal with the country’s players’ association, which enabled the women cricketers to earn as much as the male players.
- This comes four months after the United States’ women’s national footballers won the six-year-long battle with their federation to secure equal compensation.
