India’s veteran opener and ODI skipper Mithali Raj scored her career best knock of 97 runs in the opening match of Women Asia Cup T20. It was quite obvious that she would be named the ‘player of the match’ for her dominating performance against the hosts. Similarly, T20I skipper Harmanpreet Kaur got the same amount for her all-round performance in the second match of the tournament. However, it was frustrating to see that the prize money for her performance was just 250 US dollars equivalent of Rs 16,778 (approximately).
Whereas their male counterparts get thousands of dollars as prize money, there is visibly a great disparity between the two. It is nowhere close to what male cricketers get, even in domestic tournaments. The difference between the two caught the eye of netizens as they did not hold back from criticising International Cricket Council (ICC).
Here’s how followers reacted on the Instagram post of Mithali posing with the ‘player of the match’ award –
Harmanpreet receiving the ‘player of the match’ award –
Similar reactions from followers on this post as well –
There was much outrage on disparities in income when there was a large difference in the annual contracts of men and women players earlier this year. However, Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI) is not to be blamed this time around. They do not have a control over prize money decided by sponsors especially when the tournament is hosted by another country.