The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has taken a significant stride towards pay parity in domestic cricket by approving a revised pay structure that substantially increases the match fees for women cricketers. This decision, made during the BCCI Apex Council meeting on Sunday, December 21, 2025, extends the board's equal pay policy initially introduced in 2022 for the senior national teams. The move aims to address the longstanding disparity in earnings between men and women cricketers at the grassroots and state levels.

The new structure marks a considerable jump from the existing one, with senior women domestic cricketers now set to earn ₹50,000 per day for one-day and multi-day matches if they are part of the playing XI. Reserve players will receive ₹25,000 per match. In the T20 format, players in the playing XI will be paid ₹25,000 per match, while reserves will earn ₹12,500. This translates to a 2.5 times increase in match fees across formats compared to the previous structure, where senior women cricketers earned ₹20,000 per match in the playing XI and ₹10,000 for those on the bench.

Junior women cricketers have also been included in the revised framework. In junior 50-over and multi-day matches, players in the playing XI will now earn ₹25,000 per day, with reserves receiving ₹12,500. For junior T20 matches, the match fees have been revised to ₹12,500 for playing XI members and ₹6,250 for non-playing players.

BCCI Vice-President Rajeev Shukla stated that this move is a continuation of the initiative started by former BCCI secretary and current ICC chairman Jay Shah, who introduced pay parity for India's international cricketers.

This landmark decision follows India's historic victory at the Women's ODI World Cup in November 2025, where the team secured their first-ever World Cup title on home soil. The BCCI aims to build on this momentum by creating pay parity in domestic cricket, alongside the growing Women's Premier League (WPL), to further develop the game and encourage more women to pursue cricket professionally. The board's approach includes calibrating pay based on experience and match exposure, with scaled increments for players who have participated in higher numbers of games. The fee increase forms part of a broader reconsideration of domestic cricket pay across genders. While the BCCI has already raised domestic match fees for male players significantly in the past, the women's increases aim to provide a more robust and competitive wage landscape at the grassroots level as well.