India opener Smriti Mandhana on Wednesday said that it will be ‘unfair’ for the women’s team to ask for equal pay as Virat Kohli brigade bring in a lion’s share of the revenue.
Mandhana, the reigning ICC’s woman cricketer of the year, opened up on the contentious issue of pay parity at the unveiling of Bata’s new range of shoes in Mumbai.
“We need to understand that the revenue we get is through men’s cricket. The day women’s cricket starts earning revenue, I will be the first person to say that we need the same thing. But right now, we can’t say that,” she was quoted as saying in TOI.
Last week, the BCCI released the central contracts for cricketers. While men’s team players had the top bracket of Rs 7 crore per year, the highest category was Rs 50 lakh for women cricketers.
“I don’t think any of my teammates are thinking about this [pay] gap because the only focus right now is to win matches for India, get the crowd coming in and earn revenues. That what we are aiming for, and if that happens, everything else will fall in place,” she said.
“And for that, we need to perform. It is unfair on our part to say that we need to be paid as much as the men – it is not right. So, I don’t think I want to comment on that gap,” she added.
Meanwhile, the Indian women’s team left for the Australia tour on Thursday. Prior to the T20 World Cup, Harmanpreet Kaur & Co. will play a tri-series, involving Australia and England, in Canberra from January 31.
Here we come Australia !!
All smiles in blue 🇮🇳
— Harmanpreet Kaur (@ImHarmanpreet)
