Recently the BCCI announced equal pay for women cricketers in India. I was really happy. But some of my observations after the announcement; made me realize that equal pay does not really help in reducing the gender gap.
Let me introduce my bias when it comes to this piece of writing. I am a 17 year old cricket enthusiast. Cricket has become my identity. The two hours of game seem like 2 minutes to me. I love to hold the bat and hit the ball as high as possible. What image came to your mind? A boy hitting a shot or a girl? Well I cannot guess. But personally I have experienced a lot of gender discrimination under sports.
I always wonder why gender discrimination affects me so much. I realized equality really stands out to me. Inequality becomes a barrier for women around the world to reach ambitions, to work on their talent. When women and men do not have equal access to resources or equal opportunities to take part in a particular skill, there are costs like lack of leadership position, less opportunities and demotivation.
Virat Kohli completed 15 years of international cricket and his net worth is estimated to be at $127 million. Harmanpreet Kaur, one of the leading women cricketers, has been playing for 14 years of international cricket and has a net worth of $3 million. This difference clearly states the pay gap between men and women players. On October 27, 2022 Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced equal pay for men and women cricketers. But was this enough for women to be equal to me? No.
Being a crazy fan of cricket I follow all the updates. My question is if the women are not playing enough matches how will they earn? According to SportStar the Indian women’s cricket team is slated to play 65 international matches in a three-year period. The Times of India Report stated that India played a total of 159 international matches from 2018 to 2021. Women players play very few matches compared to the men players. If they don’t play enough how will they earn equally?
Women athletes should be given the stage to showcase their talent. They receive few sponsorships. According to a 2018 Statista report, women’s sports receive only 0.4% of total sponsorships. If they are not sponsored, how will the audience know they exist? Secondly, the media needs to really cover women’s sports. Statistics from UNESCO state that women’s sports receive only around 4% of all sports media coverage. Very rarely I have seen women’s cricket getting telecasted on television and I need to watch the highlights. If you are not going to make them visible how will the audience see?
Yes, paying does give some equality. But the process of implementation becomes a barrier. On one side you show equality, but other sides are hidden. Many are not aware of the other side. If I would have never followed sports passionately and thought critically about the current situation, these thoughts would never come. Promoting women’s equal participation and bias free representation in media and equal opportunities for girls in sports, are the ways to reduce gender gap under sports.