The Board of Control for Cricket (BCCI), in a historic move, ended the pay disparity between its men and women players. 

From now onward, there will be equal match fees for all centrally contracted men and women Team India cricketers. BCCI has taken this decision to end gender disparity and promote equality in the country’s most popular sport. As per the new rule, the Indian women’s cricketers will now earn match fees of ₹15 lakh per Test, ₹6 lakh per ODI and ₹3 lakh per T20I, the same as their men counterparts.

BCCI secretary Jay Shah took to Twitter to announce the development. “I’m pleased to announce BCCI’s first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing a pay equity policy for our contracted women cricketers. 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,” Shah tweeted.

The Indian women’s team recently won the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, beating Sri Lanka in the final. They also won India’s first-ever medal in cricket at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year. Seeing the growing rise of popularity of Indian Women’s Cricket, BCCI, in its last AGM has also announced the first-ever women’s IPL next year with five teams.

Reacting to the decision, Indian women’s team captain Harmanpreet Kaur expressed happiness by tweeting, “I am very happy that BCCI made this decision today, because we have always been talking about equal pay. The first time in India, women cricketers will be getting paid the same amount as men’s team. Now I am sure in India, many girls will choose cricket as a professional career. I am really happy and very thankful to BCCI for that.”

Earlier this year, New Zealand Cricket had struck a deal with the country’s players’ association, which enabled the women cricketers to earn as much as the male players.