BCCI has so much money, finally they did something good: Harpal Bedi

In a historic move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced, on Thursday, the equality in the payment of match fees to the Indian women's cricket team. This means that the women cricketers would receive the same amount in match fees as their male counterparts do.

In a panel discussion on NDTV, where The Bridge's Enakshi Rajvanshi was present, senior journalist Harpal Singh Bedi praised this welcome move by the country's apex cricketing body. "BCCI has so much money and they didn't know what to do with that. I applaud them for this move which will be a game-changer for women's cricket in India," the journo said on the show.

However, Bedi did point out a way in which this decision might affect women's sports in India negatively. "This move, while great, might motivate girls to view cricket as the more favourable choice financially and pull them away from individual sports where Indian women have excelled so far," he cautioned.

Nonetheless, he firmly believes that with these decisions across the sporting milieu in the country, the gender disparity in India will steeply go down. "If you see in the last 70-75 years, sports has been a great leveller in terms of gender equality in India," he pointed out.

To conclude, he advised that there needs to further steps to elevate women's cricket in the country. "Sponsors should be the next step. There's bound to be someone conservative to question putting so much money in the women's sport when the views don't come. That's why, the need should be to encourage more people to go and watch the game," he concluded.