In a historic move, the BCCI announced equal match fees for its centrally contracted male and female players on October 27 in an effort to advance gender equality in the nation’s most popular sport. Jay Shah, the BCCI secretary, announced the significant development on Twitter.

Shah wrote on Twitter, “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.”

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In a subsequent tweet, the BCCI secretary added, “The BCCIWomen 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. Jai Hind.”

According to the recently implemented system, Indian women’s cricket players will now receive the same compensation as their male counterparts: Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI, and Rs 3 lakh per T20I. The decision was well received by the cricket community, as expected.

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The legendary Mithali Raj tweeted, “This is a historic decision for women’s cricket in India! The pay equity policy along with the WIPL next year, we are ushering into a new era for women’s cricket in India. Thank you @JayShah Sir & the @BCCI for making this happen. Really happy today.”

Here are some tweets from Indian cricket fraternity

While Cricket Australia (CA) is also working to eliminate gender disparity, earlier this year New Zealand Cricket (NZC) reached an agreement with the country’s players’ association that allowed the women cricketers to earn the same as the male players.

India’s women’s cricket team recently won the Asia Cup in Bangladesh by defeating Sri Lanka by an eight-wicket margin. At the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year, the cricket team also won the nation’s first-ever silver medal. The BCCI announced the first-ever women’s IPL, which will take place the following year, at its most recent Annual General Meeting (AGM).