In a historic move, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the governing body of the sport in the country, on Thursday announced equal pay for men and women cricketers that are part of the national team.
The Indian cricket board's secretary, Jay Shah, took to social media to announce the move.
"I'm pleased to announce BCCI's first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing a pay equity policy for our contracted women cricketers. The match fee for both Men and Women Cricketers will be the same as we move into a new era of gender equality in Indian Cricket," Shah tweeted.
Shah also revealed the players' match fees across the three formats of the sport - Tests, One Day Internationals (ODIs), and T20Is.
"The women cricketers will be paid the same match fee as their male counterparts. Test (INR 1.5 million or $18,210), ODI (INR 600,000 or $7285), T20I (INR 300,000 or $3641). Pay equity was my commitment to our women cricketers and I thank the Apex Council for their support," he added.
Harbhajan Singh, former Indian spinner and two-time World Cup winner, praised the country's cricketing governing body for announcing an equal pay structure for both men and women.
"Happy to know that BCCI has taken the decision of pay equity policy for sportspersons in cricket. BCCI has set a standard for other sports bodies. It will encourage greater participation of women in the game. A historic milestone indeed!" Harbhajan Singh said on Twitter.
Coming back to the performance of the Indian women's team, the Harmanpreet Kaur-led side defeated Sri Lanka to claim the Asia Cup title in Bangladesh earlier this month.
Before that, they clinched the nation's first-ever Commonwealth Games medal in cricket for India, winning silver in Birmingham in August.