One Cricket Board Just Made History With Its Player Paychecks

Dr. Annelies De Vos · 2026-08-30

The Mumbai Cricket Association just did something no other state cricket body in India has ever done. It decided to pay its men and women players the exact same annual retainer. That's right. For the first time, the paycheck at the end of the year will be identical for players in the same grade, no matter their gender. It's a pretty significant shift, honestly. For years, the conversation about pay parity in sports has been loud, but action has been slow. This move by the MCA isn't just symbolic—it rewrites how a domestic board structures its entire payment system. It sends a clear message that skill and grade, not gender, determine your base pay. ### Breaking Down the New Contract System So, how does it work? The MCA handed out 22 contracts in total. That's 14 men and 8 women. These are for the cricketers who aren't already on a central contract with the national board, the BCCI. They're the core of Mumbai's domestic talent pool. The board sorted everyone into three simple grades: - **Grade A:** The top tier. Players here will receive a base retainer of $14,400 a year (converted from INR 12 lakh). - **Grade B:** The middle tier. This comes with an annual $9,600 (INR 8 lakh). - **Grade C:** The entry tier. This is set at $7,200 per year (INR 6 lakh). And here's the key part: every single player in Grade A gets that $14,400. Every player in Grade B gets $9,600. It doesn't matter if they're on the men's team or the women's team. The number is the same. On top of that base salary, players still earn match fees, daily allowances for travel, and performance bonuses. The equal retainer is the new foundation. ### The Players Leading the Charge Who are the athletes making history with these contracts? On the men's side, batter Siddhesh Lad and spin-bowling allrounder Shams Mulani are the two headline names in Grade A. They're joined in Grade B by fast bowler Mohit Avasthi and wicketkeepers Akash Anand and Hardik Tamore. For the women, Humaira Kazi and Vrushali Bhagat hold the two coveted Grade A spots. Sanika Chalke stands alone in Grade B, while five others, including left-arm seamer Fatima Jaffer, round out Grade C. The different squad sizes just show the current depth of contracted players, but the pay bands bridge any historical gap. ### A Move Years in the Making This decision didn't come out of nowhere. Believe it or not, it's been over seven years since former BCCI president Sourav Ganguly first said pay parity should be a priority. The idea kind of stalled at the national level, though. It took Mumbai's state association to finally pick up the baton and run with it on their own. It makes you wonder why it took so long, and who might be next to follow. This isn't even the MCA's only recent push to better compensate players. Just last season, they doubled the pay for their senior men's team. And they didn't stop with player contracts. They also launched a scholarship fund named after the recently retired Ajinkya Rahane, aimed at supporting young, grassroots cricketers in the city. Former MCA president Sharad Pawar has already chipped in. There's a bigger trend happening here, too. There's a real push across cricket to make domestic cricket—the games that aren't the flashy IPL—financially worthwhile for players. The national board's new Test match incentive scheme, which can boost a player's match fee by 300%, is part of it. The MCA's equal pay move is another huge piece of that puzzle. It's about making sure playing for your state, for your city, is a viable career path. As one former player recently said, **'If we don't value our domestic cricket, we risk losing the very heart of the game.'** It's a simple but powerful idea: equal work deserves equal pay. The Mumbai Cricket Association just made it a reality for their athletes. It's a historic step, and it'll be fascinating to see which board has the courage to take the next one.