I came across a video on the Quint criticizing the wage gap in the wake of the newly announced BCCI contracts. Since, it's Quint whose journalists happen to be habitual offenders in the overreaction department, I decided to let it go and move on. Then I came across multiple tweets by raging feminists about this issue on various social media platforms. It was time to retaliate, not with rhetorics and sexist taunts but facts and figures.
India has a female population of over 600 million. In 2018, Cricket reached out to over 225 million women audience in just 100 days. As per a BARC 2018 data, the top 50 shows watched by women are all Cricket matches. To delve deeper, it's important that we also talk about the IPL. Of all the viewers who watched it in 2018, 47% happened to be women. The 11th season of IPL saw the highest ratings ever among women so it's safe to say they love their Cricket. So, imagine my surprise when I attempt to relate these numbers to Women's Cricket in India. Ideally, there should be a lot of demand for it, right? But you couldn't be farther away from the truth. The 2017 CWC final between India-W and England-W saw 19.6 million impressions, the highest ever for women's Cricket, now compare that with CT final between India and Pak in the same year, 77 million impressions. Okay, Pakistan and CT final, a bit unfair on our women, so let's again try to pit that figure against a measly bilateral between India and England, the 1st ODI generated 26.7 million impressions. Despite the 'national pride' working in the favour of our girls, they couldn't get more people to watch their game in the World Cup, it was a revelation nonetheless but not nearly close to what it should be.
In a survey done across 24 countries in 2017, 83% Indians identified themselves as feminists, the highest among all the countries involved. It's shocking that in a country with millions of women and so many feminists, BCCI is yet to find the Women's IPL feasible. Why aren't the women watching Women's Cricket? Maybe the simple explanation would be that you don't switch your tv on "to support a cause", the primary motive is to get entertained. In professional sports, the quality of individuals involved plays a very important role in its popularity. To give you an example, ISL is nowhere near European leagues in terms of revenue, naturally the wage gap between the footballers playing in India and Europe is enormous. So, the question is not why they don't earn "enough" instead what you should ask yourself is, what is stopping YOU from enabling them to earn more? You want women to make as much as men but you're not willing to watch their game, how does that work? The next time you decide to go on a rant about it, care to watch a few games before to show solidarity towards the women you claim to root for, maybe then you can speak with some credibility on the subject.
Women's sports need your views, not your opinion on equality
PS: I didn't even talk about the huge workload difference between the two genders in Cricket. Men play close to 100 games a year including test matches, women 30 at most (they don't play tests, not anymore).
