ONUS BEYOND THE ₹51-CRORE BONUS

THE floodgates opened by Harmanpreet Kaur & Co's World Cup win are unleashing wave after positive wave.

- ANAND VASU

There is the satisfaction every player steps onto the field for, the pride of parents and coaches who support from the sidelines, the inspiration of young girls and boys everywhere who will vocalise their dreams with less diffidence, and the inevitable claiming of credit.

There has even been talk on whether the ₹51-crore bonus the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced for the team and the support staff was enough. It's an exceptionally good space for women's cricket to be in, and those who have worked tirelessly behind the scenes will take the win. But India's win also presents a tremendous opportunity-one that does not come by often enough-and it will be interesting to see if the BCCI has the alacrity to seize it.

The question around the bonus is tricky. For starters, a bonus is not something you demand. When the Indian men's team won the Champions Trophy, they received a bonus of ₹58 crore, and given that the men's contingent is larger, the difference in amount is negligible. But this is the first World Cup win for the women, and you can see why there was the thought that the BCCI could have been more generous.

The other side of that coin is that women's cricket does not yet attract the sort of viewership the men's team does. And it is from this that revenue follows-an aspect the administrators fall back on to justify equal pay for matches (men and women play games of the same duration), but different pay scales in central contracts.