Women cricketers look set for a pay hike

Sabi Hussain

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 24

The Indian team’s runners-up finish in the recently concluded ICC Women’s World Cup has made BCCI contemplate offering enhanced central contracts to them.

After BCCI — on the instructions of the Committee of Administrators (CoA) — announced a cash prize of Rs 50 lakh for each member of the World Cup squad, the women cricketers look all set to get richer by a few more lakhs.

It’s been learnt that an informal proposal has been floated to revisit the central contracts of the women cricketers and offer them a substantial pay hike. At present, the BCCI offers central contracts to 11 women cricketers in two categories — Grade A and Grade B.

While skipper Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur and MD Thirushkamini get Rs 15 lakh as annual retainership fee, Smriti Mandhana, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav, Ekta Bisht, Veda Krishnamurthy, Niranjana Nagarajan and Punam Raut are entitled for Rs 10 lakh per annum.

The contracts were offered in May 2015 for one year and BCCI continued it in the 2016-17 season. The amount hasn’t been revised since then, but it looks to undergo a change now.

Sources said it could be anywhere in the range of Rs 20-25 lakh for the Grade A cricketers, and Rs 15-20 lakh for the Grade B cricketers. BCCI could look to add some more names by increasing the pool of its central contract holders.

BCCI was the last board among the women cricket-playing nations to introduce the concept of central contracts in 2015. Before that, all the women cricketers got were the daily allowances. 

Last year, though, BCCI brought the daily allowances of its women cricketers at par with that of their male counterparts — $125 per day on international tours and $100 per day during a home series. They now travel by business class, same as the men’s team.

The England women players are among the highest paid, getting Rs 40.86 lakh as annual retainership fee for a full two-year central contract (2016-18). The Australian women cricketers get Rs 39.84 lakh, Rs 32.65 lakh and Rs 20.09 lakh as annual retainership fee in three categories.

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