The Indian women cricket team has already made India proud with their superb performance in the ongoing Women World Cup 2017 and the whole country is hoping that they will win the finals against England and bring the cup home. The board (BCCI) has already declared that every member of the team will be awarded Rs. 50 lakh and we are sure that many brands will be waiting for them to return to the nation so they can sign these talented girls to endorse their products.
In the semi-finals against Australia, Harmanpreet Kaur played a mind-blowing knock of 171 runs not-out for which she played 115 balls. Undoubtedly, this knock will be remembered for long in the women cricket history and we can’t agree more with her father who says that she is better than any boy.
At the moment, everyone can be seen supporting these girls but conditions were very different earlier. In fact today also, if we compare the remuneration and perks of Indian men and women cricketers, we will find that there is a huge gap and it seems that BCCI doesn’t give importance to women players that they deserve.
Almost every government department wants to employ men cricketers as it gives them publicity but there is no such provision for female cricketers.
Harmanpreet needed a job badly in 2010-11 and at that time, she was 2 yrs old in the national team but her application for job in Punjab police was ignored and what her coach Yadwinder Sodhi said will boil your blood. He said,
“We had approached the Punjab Police and requested them to employ her. She had already represented India and was a regular member of the national team. We were told that there is no provision for employment in Punjab Police for female cricketers. That time a senior official in Punjab Police had told us that she isn’t Harbhajan Singh that we will give her a DSP post. She wasn’t even granted the post of an inspector. We even met the chief minister, but to no avail.”
Her father, Harmandar Singh Bhullar, said,
“Not a single political party or their representative has ever visited our home since 2009 when Harmanpreet began to win laurels for the country. The least the last Akali Dal government or Congress government could have done is giving Harmanpreet a job.”
Presently, Harmanpreet is working in Western Railways. She got this job four years back at the recommendation of legendary cricketer Sachin Tendulkar. Diana Eduljee, member of Supreme Court-appointed Committee of Administrators (CoA), talked to Sachin and informed him about Harmanpreet’s problem. Sachin then wrote a letter to Railways minister and as a result, Harmanpreet got the job.
Despite the fact that BCCI manages both Indian men and women cricket teams, the women team doesn’t get the treatment that they deserve. Hopefully, the conditions will change now and we will see improvement in the attitude of BCCI.