When Mithali Raj retired in 2022, she did so as the highest run-scorer in women’s ODIs in history. Yet for most of her career, women’s cricket in India operated in the shadow of the men’s game. That is no longer the case.
The pay parity moment
In late 2022, the BCCI announced equal match fees for men’s and women’s national team players — ₹15 lakh per Test, ₹6 lakh per ODI, ₹3 lakh per T20I. India became one of the first major cricket boards to do so.
The WPL changes the economics
The Women’s Premier League, launched in 2023, injected serious money into the ecosystem. Smriti Mandhana was sold for ₹3.4 crore in the inaugural auction. Five teams paid ₹4,670 crore for franchise rights. TV rights sold for nearly ₹1,000 crore for five years.
The grassroots ripple
The WPL effect has been visible in academies and schools nationwide. State-level women’s tournaments now routinely draw television audiences. The BCCI has restructured the domestic women’s calendar to mirror the men’s.
The on-field story
The Indian women’s team reached the final of the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2023 T20 World Cup, won Asian Games gold, and won the 2023 Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup — the first ICC tournament title for an Indian women’s team.
The decade ahead
If the next decade matches the momentum of the last three years, women’s cricket in India could become as commercially valuable as men’s cricket in many smaller cricketing nations. India’s women’s cricket revolution is no longer a hopeful prediction — it is an underway fact.
Klik News Sports