By Abhinav Garg [1st Year Law Student at NALSAR Hyderabad (2023-2028 Batch)]

Image Source https://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/indian-players-celebrate-the-wicket-of-white-fern-sophie-news-photo/1371199596?adppopup=true

Introduction

In a country where cricket is a big deal, it’s puzzling why women cricketers don’t get the same fair pay and chances as men. Even though the women’s teams are strong in their own leagues, they often miss out on fame and opportunities. This analysis dives into this issue to figure out what’s going on. We’ll look at three main things: First, there’s a kind of bias in society that makes people think women shouldn’t play sports as much. This ends up causing female cricketers to get less money than male ones. Second, there’s a cricket board in India that could make things more equal, but they don’t seem to be doing it. They have enough money, but they’re not giving fair pay to women cricketers. This raises questions about how fair and equal things really are in the world of cricket. Lastly, we’ll explore ways to fix this unfair situation. Some people argue that it’s because of money, but there’s more to it than that. We’ll also talk about how people’s ideas about women in sports might be part of the problem. As we look into all of this, our main goal is clear: to understand why women cricketers are being treated unfairly and to find ways to make things better for them.

Societal Discrimination Against Women in Sports

Equal payment for women has always been a problem, not just in sports but in the whole society. Since the Industrial Revolution, when they left their adobes in mass numbers to adapt and work in external wage-paying opportunities, they have always been discriminated against because of their supposed physical abilities and lesser economic value generated by lower comparative viewership numbers. All these problems can be attributed to a long-standing tradition and a deep-rooted societal mindset that questions women’s athletic abilities and does not consider women athletic. When we allow such bigoted and old ideas to falter our present judgment of society, we are left with a world where young women athletes and aspiring cricketers have no choice but to give up on their ambitions. The cricket pitch in India has also suffered from gender discrimination, where the women’s squad is paid a fraction of the payment and receives less than ideal opportunities to grow commercially. There is also a widespread lack of opportunities and tournaments for the young women who aspire to join the Indian squad to play, a lack of under 16 and 19 playing women’s teams in most states puts the talented women residing in the disadvantaged state at a backfoot and kills their ambition; this also leads to classism in the Sport where only the women belonging to wealthy, families who can afford to migrate to different states to play to get a shot at the being a part of the lucrative team. This goes against the basic idea of sports, which was seen as an equalizer in society and is home to many rags-to-riches stories where people from the lowest strata of the economic class use their skill and spirit to achieve something unique and make a name for themselves, but that has not been the case for most women cricketers as they don’t get a chance to do that. 

The Economic Grunt on Women

For the women athletes, unlike their male counterparts, finally reaching the country squad does not mean a total end to all their economic problems, unlike the male counterparts. They don’t receive annual contracts and are only paid on a match basis. The women players will now get Rs 15 lakh per Test match, Rs 6 lakh for a One-Day International (ODI), and Rs 3 lakh for a T20 International. Till now, they were paid Rs 1 lakh for a white-ball match and Rs 4 lakh for a Test.  The comparative rarity of international touring opportunities exacerbates this problem. There is also the problem of a high probability of injuries due to the extreme nature of the Sport, where medicinal facilities and paid recovery leaves are hard to come by. The injury prevalence proportion for the community to elite cricket was 65.2% (SE 9.3, 95% CI 45.7–82.3 and the injury prevalence proportion for community cricket was 60%); a single bad injury can mean that the athlete won’t be able to play for a season and that could have disastrous results for the athlete who won’t get paid and sustained economic deprivation for someone could lead to them even leaving the sport in search of other stable opportunities that pay regularly. Still, education and academic growth are not a priority for the women who have given their whole life to honing and increasing their skills in a specific skill set. This leaves them stranded with only a few low-paying government jobs that offer a quota to athletes.  The struggle does not end here for the young women aspiring to be cricketers. We have to Be aware that only 22 athletes at a time get to be a part of the Indian squad, while the others have to be depended on the domestic leagues to pay their bills; the condition in the domestic circuits and local leagues  are even more problematic from the blatant lack of state sports team for women to, The controversial decision made by the BCCI to introduce the One-day Women League, which has historically failed to compete with the success of the Ranji Trophy. The problems don’t die down just yet for women, The most lucrative arena in the last decade for cricket in the Sub-continent. The introduction of the IPL (Indian Premier League ), a Fast-paced 20-over format of the Sport, makes the matches shorter and attracts eyeballs in the millions. This has made the sport more commercial and easily advertisable. It has also been a substantial economic incentive for domestic players who fail to make it to the Indian Squad. Still, as always, these benefits fail to trickle down to the women athletes. Until 2023 there was a blatant lack of the women’s premier league, even though one has been introduced. They don’t garner the same cult following as the men’s league and fail to be a cultural phenomenon. This entails a need for more high-paying contracts and the commercialization the men’s club enjoys.

Role of BCCI

The Board Of Cricket of India is a private for-profit enterprise set up in 1928 as a consortium of all the state cricket boards in the country. They do not fall under the purview of the National Sports Authority and hence are in this unique position where they are not answerable to any government authority. The board has been very successful in efficiently monetizing the cricket fandom in the country, which has made them the wealthiest cricket board in the world. It has enabled them to twist the rules regarding equal gender representation. They have never had a woman, Secretary, or President, and men have dominated Management. This skewed gender ratio is deeply reflected in other functioning of the body, the infamous case of Sexual harassment against the CEO Rahul Johri (later acquitted ). The board has also been known to misuse its power. And knuckleball their way around the ICC rules and push their weight around. But all this diminished when it came to the women’s league. Only in 2022, The BCCI announced that they would start offering women’s teams team the same match fees. Indian women’s cricketers will now receive Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI, and Rs 3 lakh per T20. It is a commendable step towards sports equality, but a difference in retainer fees still exists. The BCCI is also guilty of not providing the women’s premier league with a newly released enterprise, an equal commercial appeal, even though they sold the broadcasting rights for an eye-watering sum of 951 Cr, the amount slowly started to diminish in its value when it began trickling down from the upper echelon management to the most important blocks of the operations the players. 

Conclusion

The problem of equal pay is a cog in the machinery of the sport. If achieved well, we can expect the whole industry of women’s cricket to get an overall boost. It could motivate more stakeholders to expand their facilities to cater to the needs and wants of the young women athletes, which, in turn, would expand the reach and expandability of the game, inviting more players and younger talent. The inclusion of more people is vital for the survival and the commercial success of the sport as it singlehandedly has the highest potential to make the game more competitive, which attracts eyeballs and expands on the commercial aspect of the sport and provides the players with the much sought-after equal representation opportunity they aspire. There have been giant leaps and bounds made in the country to support the team, from equivalent match fees and logistics support; long gone are the days when the women’s team had to fund their tours and match expenses. The sport should take motivation from what Nike did, where just by offering a men’s size to women’s football jerseys, they were able to double the number of sales[1] Actions like these should be pushed and applauded as it is a way for teams to expand their fandom and viewership. We have the potential and everything we might need to change, flatten the turf, and give the young girl sitting in her classroom a legitimate and real shot at achieving the glory and finances the male cricketers enjoy.