Women's cricket: Bowl out the disparities

A scintillating drive down the ground off Nat Sciver for a boundary marked a record that might remain unbroken for a long time. With the boundary, Mithali Raj (38) bettered Charlotte Edwards’ tally of 10,273 and became the world’s leading run-scorer in Women International cricket. It’s a remarkable achievement to celebrate for a nation where cricket is the second religion.

But India’s love for cricket has gender fault lines. Male cricketers are worshipped as demigods but almost none is aware of even the achievers in women’s cricket. There is complete lack of empathy from sponsors, fans, broadcasters and BCCI alike. This mental blackhole makes the achievements of women teams trivial and obscure. Ironically, this is the era of women empowerment and the least the nation can do is to give the players their dues.

Indian male cricketers with grade A contracts earn Rs 7 crore whereas cricketers placed in the lowest category grade C, earn Rs 1 crore. Glaringly, the highest contract value for female cricketers is only Rs 50 lakh. The numbers clearly show that the claim of gender equality in sports is just a figment of imagination. We can’t expect sponsors or broadcasters to give importance to women’s cricket if the cricket board itself maintains such a stark disparity in remuneration.

The board has to market the women team’s achievement with pomp and encourage sponsors to break better deals. The broadcasters and cricketing bodies must collaborate to produce features, broadcasts and interviews to increase their popularity.

The government’s role shouldn’t end at the proforma felicitation of women cricketers. Otherwise, Virat Kohli’s boundaries will continue to find a place on the front page, whereas the public will keep searching Smriti Mandhana with the tag HOT on YouTube in incognito mode.