Indian administrators must change mind-set towards women's cricket

In 2012 the Indian Sports Ministry asked all the national sports federations NSFs to make provision for at least 10 per cent of its total membership to women besides the 25 per cent membership and voting rights it envisaged for the governmentnominated athletes on the executive committees of the NSFsBut the Board of Control for Cricket in India BCCI would have none of it it can only afford to snub the sports ministry like it didIn a 39page stronglyworded reply to the Ministry the BCCI straightaway rejected the instructionsCricket for women is no doubt conducted under the aegis of the BCCI but it has never attracted even a fraction of the popularity associated with the mens team it wroteOur members would never accept such an illegal imposition of women having membership and voting rights over cricketing matters concerning the mens team In fact this provision is downright absurd as far as the BCCI is concerned The end result of these changes would dilute the voting rights of the existing members by 35 per cent 2510 per cent and that is reason enough to drop these provisions the Board addedNeedless to say the BCCI never implemented the Ministrys instructions and got away scotfreeHeres another example Just a few years ago when I asked a former president of the Indian cricket board during a formal interview about the lack of facilities for Indian women cricketers he chose to go off the record and poured out what I felt were his true feelings for women cricketersWhat he told me off the record was candid as well as disconcerting More importantly his off the record reply gave a peep into the mindset of Indian cricket administrators visavis women cricketersSee the Indian male players are getting the facilities after several decades the womens wing wanted this within two years he stated off the recordThey want to be treated on the same lines as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Sachin Tendulkar Within bounds and reasons they have been given all they have been holding camps using the NCA National Cricket Academy They want to tour they are allowed We cannot duplicate the mens wing for them The mens wing got it after many years after delivering so much on the field Please understand that he saidThe reply came as a revelation of the mentality of the BCCI of what they think about women cricketersAs a disclaimer let me point out that this is not to belittle the superb achievements of the mens team over the years and decades nor am I trying to make a case that women cricketers should immediately and at all costs be given all that their male counterparts are receivingThe point here is that the BCCI is rich enough to narrow the vast gap between the wages of the two genders provided the thinking of its administrators changes if it hasnt so far since the former president gave me a peep into his mindThe BCCIs 201819 balance sheet showed that it was worth a colossal Rs 1448980 crore Obviously there is no dearth of money it has to be the mindset which must changeAs the Indian womens team is set to embark on a tour of England in a few days not much may have changed within the BCCI with regard to women cricketers A sample of this can be had from the vast disparity in the annual retainership for male and female players announced recentlyThe annual retainershipcontract for players is just the latest example of the huge gulf between the pay scale of the male and female cricketers A male cricketer in the A Grade receives Rs 7 crore those in the A bracket get Rs 5 crore cricketers in the B category receive Rs 3 crore and cricketers in the C Grade get Rs 1 crore annuallyFor women there are only three grades and the retainership amounts are Rs 50 lakh Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakh Yes you read it right Rs 50 lakh Rs 30 lakh and Rs 10 lakhThe total amount the BCCI has earmarked for the 28 male cricketers for the 202021 annual retainership is Rs 96 crore while the corresponding grand total for the 10 contracted women cricketers is a mere Rs 510 crore a colossal difference of Rs 9090 croreSimilarly there is a huge gulf in the match fees of Indian male and female cricketersAlso the womens teams play much less international matches than the mens team therefore much less income in terms of match fee Imagine the Indian womens team last played a Test match in 2014 They will now play one in EnglandThose who try to defend the vast disparity in payment often argue that women players dont attract revenue via sponsorship and other endorsements so they deserve less payMy counter is Did the BCCI over the years and decades try to take women players and administrators of the national womens cricket body when they were a separate entity until 2006 into confidence and market their game along with mens Did they treat female cricketers at par with their male counterparts in many other respects The answer is NoHad the BCCI administrators over the decades honestly planned about the betterment of the womens game they could have bundled the sponsorship deals combining mens and womens cricket That never happenedThe hard truth is that the BCCI extremely reluctantly merged the national womens body which was an independent body until 2006 The BCCI was one of the last national mens boards to merge the womens wing on the instructions of the International Cricket CouncilAnd then people with a certain mindset have been ruling the BCCI since Evidently there are different yardsticks for mens and womens gameIndian women cricketers present and past saw a ray of hope when Sourav Ganguly was elected BCCI president in October 2019 Former India captain Shanta Ramgaswamy was among those who saw light at the end of the tunnelAs Sourav is there as BCCI president and when he says that he wants to do something for firstclass cricketers I suppose he includes women players also So thats a good sign Hopefully half of our work will be done What we need to do he himself is proposing If it happens it will be a shot in the arm for all women cricketers who slogged all their lives to help sustain this game Ramgaswamy who is now in the BCCI apex council as a representative of the Indian Cricketers Association had told me after the 2019 BCCI electionsAlas not much has happened since October 2019 Probably Ganguly alone cant do anything without his colleagues changing their mindset visavis Indian womens cricketThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever