India’s men’s and women’s national cricket teams will be paid the same appearance fee to represent their country, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Secretary Jay Shah said on Thursday.

“We are implementing pay equity policy for our contracted BCCI women cricketers,” Shaw wrote in a post on Twitter.

“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.

“The BCCI women cricketers will be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts. Pay equity was my commitment to our women cricketers and I thank the Apex Council for their support.”

There was no mention of changes to BCCI’s annual retainers for women players, which remain significantly different to that of India’s men’s players. Women currently in the highest retainer bracket earn INR 50 lakh (£52,365), followed by INR 30 lakh (£31,421) for Grade B players and INR 10 lakh (£10,474) for Grade C players. Grade A+ male players, meanwhile, pocket INR seven crores (£733,289), followed by INR five crores (£523,778) for Grade A, INR three crore (£314,188) for Grade B and INR one crore (£104,745) for Grade C.

Shah said women’s cricketers would be paid the same fees as their male counterparts - 1,500,000 Indian rupees (£15,724) for Tests, 600,000 (£6,289) for one-day internationals and 300,000 (£3,145) for Twenty20 internationals.

Earlier this year, the BCCI said a fully-fledged women’s Indian Premier League (IPL) could begin as early as next year.

Former India women team captain Mithali Raj said it was a “historic” decision.

“The pay equity policy along with the WIPL next year, we are ushering into a new era for women’s cricket in India,” Raj wrote on Twitter.

Source - Sky Sports

-Agencies