Jay Shah, the Secretary of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), made the historic announcement on Wednesday that the nation's female players will henceforth get the same match money as their male counterparts.
Shah declared that the BCCI will also introduce a wage equity policy for the contracted India women's cricket team players as Indian cricket moves toward a new era of gender equality.
Shah announced the BCCI's first action against discrimination via his official Twitter account: "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 Indian Cricket."
According to Shah's revelation that Indian women cricketers will receive the same match money as their male counterparts, both sexes will make INR 15 lakh for participating in a Test match, while INR 6 lakh and INR 3 lakh for participating in an ODI and T20I, respectively.
Jai Hind, said Shah. "Pay equity was my vow to our women cricketers. I thank the Apex Council for their support."
The men's and women's professional games in India have never been integrated under a single master agreement. In a five-year deal announced in July of this year, New Zealand stipulated that its male and female cricket players would get the same match money in all competitions, both domestically and internationally.
The identical match price in Indian cricket does not, of course, imply true pay parity because the core contract fees provided to men and women are drastically different.
Male centrally contracted players currently receive seven crores, six crores, and three crores in three categories, while female players receive fifty lakhs, thirty lakhs, and ten lakhs respectively.
The most recent set of player contracts for 2022, for both men and women, has not yet been released by the BCCI.