Indian cricket's gender pay gap between male and female cricketers is one of the most discussed topics among the cricket fraternity, but former India Women captain and commentator Anjum Chopra called it as unfair demand as the Women in Blue are yet to win a World Cup.
The women cricketers of the Australian team are getting paid as much as their male players, but in India, there is a huge pay gap between men and women cricketers, and even they earned the same prize money as their male counterparts after winning the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2020 against India.
According to the BCCI’s recent central contracts, Grade A women players receive Rs 50 lakhs while Grade A male cricketers earn Rs 5 crore while A+ category players earn Rs 7 crore.
Well, Chopra has a suggestion for India Women, saying they should first compete with their own gender – Australian team who have won both T20 World Cup and 50-over World Cup and then ask for the same.
Anjum Chopra told India Today, “I do not know what this has become a discussion point in such a big manner because we must remember that Indian women’s team has never won a World Cup. Men’s team has. First and foremost they should compare themselves to what the best women’s team in the world is getting-that is the Australian team.”
She continued: “I think that will be a more fair assessment of comparison rather than being compared to men’s counterparts. Men’s cricket is the pinnacle because what Indian men’s team draws, I do not think any team in the world draws that, even men. In our case, the Australian women’s cricket draws the maximum salary. And mind you the women’s Australian team gets as equal pay as their men’s team.
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But their women’s team has won the T20 World Cup and the 50-over format World Cup. So, let’s compete with our own gender first. And I think it is a brilliant thing that Australian women are getting paid equally as men. And this also means that Indian women can also get paid equally, but what is the reason that we are not getting, that is because we have not won a World Cup. So, if we perform consistently, win the World Cup, the change will happen. Win the World Cup first. The day you win the World Cup this 50 lakh could get converted to 2 crores. So, it is unfair to demand.”
On Women’s IPL, she said: “The reason why we are talking about IPL is that the women’s team has been doing consistently well at the international level. So, for me, as long as whatever helps the team to progress, I am all for it, whether it is an IPL or any international series or tournament. The idea is to play more and more matches.”
Chopra explained: “When you say it is a women’s IPL exhibition match then it has to be played at the time when men’s IPL is played because men’s IPL is an established property. So, you will play another tournament of the same type for a different gender at the same time. And when the entire world media is following the men’s IPL, in the middle of the break women’s matches you are still dominating the newspapers. So, the press does not need to go to a different country to cover the tournament and plus you carry the momentum of the men's IPL to the women’s IPL.”
She signed off by saying, “And that is how advertising and branding are done. And why you should not do it at the same time when you are building up a property. It’s like how women’s and men’s T20 World Cup was held at the same time earlier. So, it is slowly that you build it up. You do not announce something and then do not know whether it can hold on its own or not. It is basically done to avoid any failures.”
(With India Today Inputs)
