7 Crore vs 50 lakh: On Women's Day, Australia bridge the pay gap, Indian cricketers reel way behind

As we await the most intense cricket match this year with India playing Australia in the final of the ICC Women's T20 World Cup, ironically it comes on International Women’s Day with inflated debates surrounding the gender pay gap that India’s sportswomen have to battle with.

The winners of the women’s tournament will receive $US 1m, with the runners-up to take home $US500,000 from the ICC, while it has been set US$ 3.5m for the winners and US$ 1.5m for the runners up at the Men's T20 World Cup to be held in October.

Surprisingly, the Australian Eves will earn the same as their male counterparts would - in stark contrast to their rivals, India. Last year, Cricket Australia (CA) had announced that they would top up any prize money won by the Australian women’s cricket team at the T20 World Cup to ensure parity with the men’s equivalent winnings. If the Australian team becomes the Women's T20 World Cup winners, not only will they get a million dollars from the ICC, CA will also pay them an extra 600 thousand dollars (₹4.29 crores) to equal the sum that was received by the 2016 Men's World T20 Champions.

The team that is eyeing the biggest glory for female cricket in India (Image: ICC)

Male cricketers in India are revered as gods, with handsome payments, and endorsement deals. Whereas, women players are still stuck in the hearth.

A-list women cricketers including T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur, opener Smriti Mandhana and spinner Poonam Yadav make about $68,000 (INR 50 lakh) each annually despite progressively better performances, including reaching the 50-over World Cup final in 2017.

By contrast, the top male players, led by captain Virat Kohli, earn nearly $1 million (INR 7 crore) on the annual contract of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), which is the world’s richest.

In an interview with Reuters, Ananya Upendran, editor at cricket news website Women’s CricZone, said female players’ pay had gone up, but they were still paid a pittance in comparison to the men.

The conversation around equal pay in professional sports has gained momentum since members of the U.S. women’s soccer team sued their federation over the disparity.

India’s female athletes, however, have seldom brought it up.

Mandhana - the 2018 International Cricket Council (ICC) women’s cricketer of the year - even said it would be unreasonable for women to ask for equal pay.

The BCCI took control of women’s cricket in 2006, but female players had to wait until 2015, 11 years after their male colleagues, to get the annual pay contracts that give them financial security. Despite the late start, India’s elite women cricketers have been making significant strides on and off the field.

The T20 World Cup final, at the 100,000-capacity Melbourne Cricket Ground, could attract a record attendance for a women's sporting fixture, exceeding the 90,185 at the 1999 football World Cup final in Pasadena, California.

The International Cricket Council has been urging cricket bodies around the world to follow Australia's lead and dramatically raise wages for women's players.

The hosts are eyeing a multi-million-dollar payday should they retain the T20 World Cup title on March 8. For India, it's more about bringing the country its biggest glory yet in women's cricket.