Picture Credit: AFP
The poor condition of women's cricket in India, be it the infrastructure or their payment, has never been out of the critics' radar. Time and again people have voiced their opinion in favour of the female cricketers and the alleged injustice to them. Before the ongoing debate of the pay gap between centrally contracted men and women players could die down, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has landed itself in another trouble.
If a recent media report is to be believed, then the India women's cricket team have not been paid their prize money they should have got after reaching the final of the 2020 T20 World Cup, where they lost to Australia by 85 runs.
BCCI owes $500,000 to Indian women's team
According to a report carried by Telegraph Sport, the BCCI has not paid the prize money of $500,000 to the Indian women's team which they should have received within two weeks after the final of the mega event, way back in March 2020. The issue came into light after the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA) raised the matter with International Cricket Council (ICC) in August, the report added.
"Prize money is payable to players for their on-field performance in pinnacle events and the late non-payment of money owing to players is unacceptable," said FICA CEO Mr Moffat as quoted by Telegraph Sport. He revealed that he even offered his support to the Indian players and asked them to form the players' association in the country.
"We encourage players in India to consider getting organised as part of a players’ association so they, and the game in India, can benefit from collective player representation in the same way that their fellow professionals around the world do," Moffat added.
ICC had increased the prize money for women World Cup in 2020
For the mega event in Australia, the ICC had announced an amazing hike in the amount of money awarded to the winners and runners up. The announcement declared that the winners would be getting $1 million, while the runners-up will take home $500,000. It is worth noting that this amount was five times that of what was offered in the 2018 edition of the marquee event.