Revenue comes from men’s cricket team, pay-gap does not bother me: Smriti Mandhana

India women’s cricket team star player Smriti Mandhana has said that she does not bother about getting paid equally to her male counterparts because she understands that most of the revenue comes from the men’s cricket team.

Smriti Mandhana, who was named ICC’s women’s cricketer of the year, was present at the unveiling of new shoes from Bata where she made clear her stand on the pay-gap issue.

“We need to understand that the revenue which we get is through men’s cricket. The day women’s cricket starts getting revenue, I will be the first person to say that we need the same thing. But right now, we can’t say that” she told reporters.

The pay-gap issue among the two sides of cricket have been highlighted every now and then and players have generally kept themselves away from taking such questions head-on. The issue started getting discussed among the general populace after it was told that male players in the highest bracket of BCCI’s contract earn 7 crore Rupees a year while female players in the same bracket earn just 50 lacs.

“I don’t think any of the teammates is thinking about this gap because the only focus right now is to win matches for India, get the crowd coming in, get the revenue. That is the thing which we are aiming for and if that happens all other things are going to fall in place,” she said.

“And for that, we need to perform. It is unfair on our part to say that we need same pay, it is not right. So I don’t think I want to comment on that gap,” she added.

India women’s team is gearing up for a T20 series in Australia before the commencement of the ICC T20 World Cup in 2019. She has said that the tour will help her make changes in her gameplay in the Aussie conditions and will also allow the team to get the right composition.

“Most of them (the players) have played in Australia, so I think with India A touring Australia last month, that is also going to be a big help (as) four-five players were part of that team as well.

“But the tri-series is going to be a really important tournament, thinking about the team composition,” Mandhana said.