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The Indian women’s cricket team became history as at the stroke of midnight, it won the 2025 Women’s World Cup following a tense victory in a match against South Africa.

It was pure pride that saw the whole nation celebrating. During the World Cup festivities, an old video of former cricketer Mithali Raj emerged, in which she disclosed the remuneration that women cricketers used to get before being under the protection of the BCCI.

Mithali Raj’s Old Interview Goes Viral

An old interview of Mithali Raj shows how Indian women cricketers were being paid in 2005 in a shocking manner.

In the wake of the festivities surrounding the historic Women’s World Cup victory of India, an aged video of ex- Indian captain Mithali Raj has been leaked on social media, and it is causing everyone to go aback.

Mithali in the video exposes the bleak truth of women cricket lifestyle prior to being under the Board of Control of Cricket in India (BCCI). She disclosed that the then annual contracts and match fees were absent, which was not even imaginable in the modern times of professional sporting events.

In an interview with The Lallantop, Mithali was questioned on the contracts and payments, which the women cricketers used to take in the old days. She revealed:

Her words provide an insight into the fact that the sport was a source of no financial reward to women players in the past even after they had toiled hard and received international accolades.

Mithali proceeded to remember that following the 2005 Women World Cup in which the Indians were the runners-up, they were given a meager ₹1000 per match. She said, “When we returned as the runners-up in the 2005 world cup we were offered, we were paid, according to my calculation, which are 2005 runners-up, jab hum 2005,… when we started running we were paid in 2005, 1000 per match… So we played eight games or so. (I may be mistaken, but when we were the runners-up in the 2005 world cup, we were offered 1000 per match, back home. We had played eight games by this time.)”

Her words emphasize that women cricketers did not get much recognition and financial assistance during that period and that too, after playing on the international stage.

She ended by saying that everything started to get better after women’s cricket was put under the BCCI.

“Wo to abhi aaya hai when we joined BCCI, to shuru hua per series, pe game and lastly pay equity aayi. (That was all after the BCCI came on board – all payments started being made per series and per game, and recently, there was the pay equity)”

Historic move by BCCI in Indian cricket on pay parity

The equality of salaries Mithali Raj had mentioned in her interview years ago is actually a very new and historic development in the Indian cricket. Only in October 2022, the Board of Control in Cricket in India (BCCI) declared that from now on both men and women cricketers would pay equal fees in matches: a historic move that was made in its 15th Apex Council meeting.

This was an indication that the women players would now be earning equal amounts of money per match with the male players.

Although some of the critics were numerous and they raised the question that women’s cricket did not generate as much revenue and viewership as men based on that, there were also numerous voices which supported the move fully. It was widely celebrated by fans, ex-players and experts as a radical and forward-looking move that would inspire the new generation of women cricketers to dream more. The BCCI that stood through all the hubbub thought that hard work should be rewarded equally, irrespective of the gender.

And as it happens, the right thing always pays off. The women in blue demonstrated this in the most graphic manner by running over South Africa by 52 runs to win the 2025 World Cup trophy. It was not a mere victory of theirs, but a declaration.

They carved their names on a cup that has always been dominated by England and Australia and it served as a message to the world that with faith, equality, and opportunity; Indian women in cricket can overcome it all.

The post Shocking Amount Leaked! Mithali Raj Once Revealed Women Cricketers Earned ‘Only Rs.1000 Per Match’ Before Getting Signed With BCCI: ‘Contract Toh Tha Hi Nahi’ appeared first on NewsX.