Indian women's cricketers offered central contracts by BCCI after nine year wait

Shashank Manohar stuck to his word about developing women’s cricket

Newly elected BCCI President Shashank Manohar has began his tenure on a positive note, by announcing central contracts will be available for Women’s cricketers. This move will go a long way in legitimising the women’s cricket in India, which has often played second fiddle to it’s male counter-parts. Central contracts were introduced for male cricketers in 2001. It’s been a 11-year wait, but Manohar has stuck to his agenda of improving the state of the women’s game.

During a media interaction, Manohar said, “Before taking on this job, one of my main goals was to improve the state of women’s cricket. If you see, we have been lacking behind in this realm. So, we have decided to offer them central contracts and hope to develop the women’s game as much as possible. BCCI wants more young girls to take up cricket as a profession.”

The Central contracts issue was set to be discussed at meeting scheduled on August 28. However, due to the absence of N Srinivasan, the meeting had to be postponed.

According to 1983 Arjuna Awardee, Dian Edulji, a lot more needs to be done. She stated that it was long overdue as every other country had central contracts.She said, “Women’s cricketers need a sense of job security, like their male counterparts. However, we should also try and bring the World Cup to India. The Men’s world cup has been hosted so many times, we need to tell the world about our cricket team.”

BCCI took control of Women’s cricket in 2006, but several pundits have gone onto question their role in the sport’s development. India didn’t play a single test match for eight years, leading to speculation over the governing body’s ignorance. Edulji added, “We need to also look into the state of ex-cricketers, they need immediate financial help and I hope the BCCI looks into that. There is a long way to go, but we are taking the right steps. Hope the speed of growth is fast as well.”

Manohar had vowed to change the state of Women’s cricket in India and this move is a step towards that direction.