Shocking! Mithali Raj reveals players received Rs 1000 each per match for 2005 Women's ODI World Cup

On Sunday, India won the Women's ODI World Cup and the entire country celebrated. As celebrations, an old interview clip of former Indian cricketer and captain, Mithali Raj is doing the rounds where she is seen talking about the fee female cricketers used to receive back in the day.

Mithali Raj shares details about the payment India's female cricketers received in the 2005 World Cup

During a candid interview, former Indian cricketer Mithali Raj was asked by the interviewer about players' payment contracts. Mithali Raj clarified that unless the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) took charge of women's cricket, the cricketers were not bound by any contract.

The former cricketer further said that since there was no annual contract, the players of the team did not receive any match fees, a statement that took the interviewer by surprise.

In another shocking revelation, Mithali Raj shared that as far as she remembers, when India ended up as runners-up in the 2005 Women's World Cup, a team she was part of, they received meagre ₹1000 per match. The players had played about eight games and even reached the final but barely received any fee for their efforts.

"There was no match fees...there was absolutely no money in the sport", recalled Mithali Raj, revealing the sorry state of affairs that women's cricket had to go through in India.

However, things seem to have become better now. Mithali Raj said that pay equity has been achieved in Indian cricket from 2022, ending the disparity between the match fees that male and female players receive.

While the country is hailing the women's cricket team as heroes following their win, women's cricket has largely been neglected and shoved away in the dark for decades. To make things better in terms of payment, in October 2022, BCCI took a major decision and introduced pay parity between men and women cricketers during the 15th Apex Council meeting. However, the move did not come without criticism or backlash.

BCCI took control over Indian Women's Cricket in 2006, after which the players began to have annual contracts. It took almost two decades since then, to introduce equal pay. The women cricketers have now given a fitting reply to all those that doubted them with their spectacular win after they beat South Africa in the ODI World Cup final.

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