Skipper Harmanpreet hails BCCI decision on equal pay

New Delhi: Indian skipper Harmanpreet Kaur on Thursday laouded BCCI's decision that the Indian men and women players will get equal match fees.

The announcement which was made by BCCI's Secretary Jay Shah, has come as a big move in women's cricket and many cricket stars are reacting to the historic decision.

In a video shared by BCCI, Harmanpreet Kaur stated "First of all, I welcome this decision. We always talk about equality and I really am happy that for the first time in India we will get equal pay as men are getting.

I am happy this is happening now. I am sure now a lot of girls will now take up cricket as a professional career."

Notably, Kaur also took to Twitter to share her thoughts on the same. "Truly a red letter day for Women's Cricket in India with pay parity announced for women and men. Thank you BCCI and Jay Shah," Kaur wrote.

As per the newly introduced system, the Indian women cricketers will now receive Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI, and Rs 3 lakh per T20I, the same as their male counterparts.

Earlier, the women players received Rs 1 lakh each for ODIs and T20Is while the match fee for a Test match was Rs 4 lakh.

Recently, the Indian women's cricket team triumphed in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh, beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets. The team also won the country's first-ever silver medal in cricket at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year.

In the last Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the BCCI, the cricket board also announced the first-ever women's IPL that is scheduled to take place next year.

Earlier this year, New Zealand Cricket (NZC) had struck a deal with the country's players' association, which enabled the women cricketers to earn as much as the male players, while Cricket Australia (CA) is also working to do away with gender disparity.