Shah Rukh Khan, Anushka Sharma, & Other B'wood Celebs Cheer BCCI's Equal Pay Decision For Women Cricketers

Shah Rukh Khan on Thursday evening took to social media to hail the Board of Control for Cricket India (BCCI) decision to start a pay parity policy that would now give international women cricketers the same match fee as their male counterparts. Shah Rukh, who is an ardent cricket fan, also owns a cricket team, IPL franchise Kolkata Knight Riders, and has been in business for quite some time.

Shah Rukh hoped that the decision would inspire other sports boards to follow suit. Sharing the original announcement of Jay Shah, the Honorary Secretary of BCCI in India, SRK on Twitter wrote, "What a good front foot shot. Sports being such an equaliser ( in more ways than one ) hoping it will pave the way for others to follow."

Earlier on Thursday (October 27), Jay Shah took to Twitter to announce the historic move along with a picture of the Indian women's team with the Asia Cup trophy. He wrote, "I'm pleased to announce @BCCI's first step towards tackling discrimination. We are implementing a pay equity policy for our contracted @BCCIWomen cricketers. The match fee for both Men and Women Cricketers will be same as we move into a new era of gender equality in Cricket."

Several other Bollywood celebs also applauded the move. Priyanka Chopra shared the news about equal pay along with a viral video of cricketer Deepti Sharma on her Instagram Story. She wrote, "BCCI you've hit it out of the park with this one. A monumental decision in ensuring equality and pay parity. I hope this will be the first of many for us."

Meanwhile, Anushka Sharma, who is married to cricketer Virat Kohli, shared a screenshot of BCCI Secretary Jay Shah's tweet and celebrated the news with clapping emojis. While Taapsee Pannu, who was recently seen in Shabash Mithu, the biopic of former Indian captain Mithali Raj too, hailed the decision and said, "A huge step towards equal pay for equal work. Thank you BCCI for leading with example (clapping emoji)."

Akshay Kumar too praised BCCI's initiative and tweeted, "Dil khush ho gaya ye padh kar. Chha gaye @BCCI @JayShah ! It's an absolutely brilliant decision, will go a long way in making our women players take up professional cricket."

The Indian women's cricket team emerged victorious in the recently held Asia Cup by beating Sri Lanka by eight wickets. The team also won India's first-ever silver medal in cricket at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham earlier this year. However, the pay of female cricketers is far less in comparison to male cricketers in terms of match fees and central contracts. Female centrally contracted cricketers earn anywhere between Rs 10-50 lakh per year, while males earn up to Rs 1-7 crore.