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New Delhi: Things have drastically improved for women’s cricket in India. The Harmanpreet Kaur-led side created history as they won its maiden World Cup title. Their victory also brought a record-breaking prize purse of around Rs 39.78 crore, along with an additional Rs 51 crore announced by the BCCI. But the journey to this success wasn’t always smooth. In a past interview, Indian cricket legend Mithali Raj opened up about how different and challenging the conditions were during her era compared to today.
Mithali, who is the leading run-scorer in women’s ODI cricket, once disclosed that the Indian team received just Rs 1,000 per match, even after finishing as runners-up in the 2005 Women’s World Cup.
Women’s cricket in India was run by the Women’s Cricket Association of India (WCAI) from 1973 until it was merged with the BCCI in November 2006.
“There were no annual contracts. There were no match fees. When we finished runners-up in the Women’s World Cup 2005, we were given Rs 1,000 per match. Just for that tournament. We didn’t have any match fees otherwise,” Mithali had earlier revealed, in an interview with Lallantop earlier this year.
“There was absolutely no money in the sport, so where would we get match fees from?” Mithali had stated.
“These (match fees and annual contracts) started when things came under the BCCI. First, we were given per series, then per game, and only recently has there been pay equity with the men’s team,” Mithali had added.
In October 2022, then-BCCI secretary Jay Shah made a historic declaration that men and women representing India would earn the same match fees, Rs 15 lakh for Tests, Rs 6 lakh for ODIs, and Rs 3 lakh for T20Is.
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