Will demand equal pay when women’s cricket generate equal revenue, says Smriti Mandhana

Indian cricketer Smriti Mandhana feels that it is quite justifiable that their male counterparts get a heavier pay cheque because the bulk share of revenue is generated from men’s cricket.

"We need to understand that the revenue which we get is through men's cricket. The day women's cricket starts getting revenue, I will be the first person to say that we need the same thing. But right now, we can't say that," said Smriti Mandhana as reported by The Times of India.

While the Indian male cricketers in the elite league is rewarded a total of INR 7 crores per year, the top played female cricketers get a remuneration of INR 50 lakhs for the same time frame, which is 14 times less than the former.

Vouching for her teammates, Mandhana clearly stated that they are also not pondering about the pay scale and are rather focused on their game and winning matches, which would automatically attract the crowds to the stadium.

"I don't think any of the teammates is thinking about this gap because the only focus right now is to win matches for India, get the crowd coming in, get the revenue. That is the thing which we are aiming for and if that happens all other things are going to fall in place," added the cricketer.

India will play a tri-series which will be a potential rehearsal before the Women’s World T20 kick-starts in Australia next month. She feels that the three nation tourney is going to help them lock down on the playing XI for the mega event.

"But the tri-series is going to be a really important tournament, thinking about the team composition," said Mandhana.