Ex-India skipper Shantha Rangaswamy writes to CoA on issues facing women's cricketers

Former India captain Shantha Rangaswamy has requested the Committee of Administrators (CoA) running the BCCI to consider the women cricketers’ longstanding plea of one-time benefit scheme and a substantial increase in the monthly pension.

Sources in the BCCI told PTI that Rangaswamy has written to the four-member CoA, led by former CAG Vinod Rai and includes former India women’s cricketer Diana Edulji.

The matter could be discussed as early as Saturday when the CoA meets in Mumbai.

A majority of former women cricketers including Rangaswamy feels that the BCCI should have brought them under the one-time benefit scheme, just like it did for their male counterparts in 2015.

As of now, former women cricketers who have played more than five Tests get ‘gratis’ from the BCCI with the ones in the highest slab getting Rs 22,500 per month.

The current slab structure leaves out cricketers who have played less than five Tests for India.

The health of women’s cricket has been improving ever since it got the BCCI recognition in 2006 even though huge financial disparity remains in comparison to their male counterparts.

In 2015, the BCCI had announced central contracts for the current women players, dividing them into two grades.