On Wednesday, The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced new contracts system and payment structure for Indian cricketers that will help them to earn a lot more than what they used to in previous years.

The BCCI has introduced a new grade system altogether.

Men’s payment structure:

Grade A+: ₹7 Cr
Grade A: ₹5 Cr
Grade B: ₹3 Cr
Grade C: ₹1 Cr.

Earlier, there was no Grade A+ while Grade A cricketers used to get ₹2 Cr and Grade B and C cricketers used to get ₹1 Cr and ₹50 Lakh respectively. However, when BCCI rolled out the payment structure for women cricketers, the shocking pay gap was apparent.

Also read: BCCI Introduces New Payment Structure For Indian Cricketers

With the elimination of grade A+ that only our men cricketers enjoy, here’s how the ladies will be paid.

Grade A: ₹50 lacs
Grade B: ₹30 lacs
Grade C: ₹10 lacs

Five cricketers will receive ₹7 Cr annually from BCCI as they have been placed in the top grade– Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, and Jasprit Bumrah. Meanwhile, former India captain MS Dhoni remains in Grade A and will receive ₹1 Cr per annum.

Dhoni is one of the seven players to be named in Grade A and the others are – Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Wridhhiman Saha. Grade B players will be richer by ₹3 Cr per annum and the seven cricketers are KL Rahul, Umesh Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, and Dinesh Karthik.

Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Suresh Raina, Parthiv Patel, and Jayant Yadav will receive ₹1Cr each for being named in Group C.

As for the women’s compensation structure, Mithali Raj, Jhulan Goswami, Harmanpreet Kaur, Smriti Mandhana are placed in Grade A and will receive ₹50 lakhs per annum. Poonam Yadav, Veda Krishnamurthy, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Ekta Bisht, Shikha Pandey, Deepti Sharma in Grade B will receive ₹30 lakhs per annum.

And Mansi Joshi, Anuja Patil, Mona Meshram, Nuzhat Parveen, Sushma Verma, Punam Raut, Jemimah Rodrigues, Pooja Vastrakar, Taniya Bhatia in Grade C will be given 10 lakhs per annum.

Unimpressed by the improper compensation structure, Twitter users urged BCCI to take necessary steps to pay the women cricketers equally.

https://twitter.com/virendr_sehwag/status/971355465513758720

Yes women's Cricket is not commercially as viable (yet) as men's Cricket but this pay difference is still staggering given that as an anthele both men and women put in the same blood and sweat.

As the richest board in the Cricket world #BCCI can definitely pay women more. pic.twitter.com/3bzeFliqxd

— Rashi (@rashi_kakkar) March 7, 2018

BCCI Retainer Fee:
👉Men:
Grade A+ INR 7 Cr
Grade A INR 5 Cr
Grade B INR 3 Cr
Grade C INR 1 Cr

👉Women:
Grade A INR 50 Lacs
Grade B INR 30 Lacs
Grade C INR 10 Lacs

Women's Top Grade Fee Is Half Of Men's Lowest Grade Fee. Life Is So Unfair. 😏 #BCCI #TeamIndia

— Sir Jadeja fan (@SirJadeja) March 7, 2018

https://twitter.com/frustratedsoulx/status/971423620395397120

https://twitter.com/gaurav29091995/status/971604816848973826

Bad gift to women team on #WomensDay
Shame on #BCCI for double standards#HappyWomensDay #WomensDay2018 #sheroes

— Saurabh 🇮🇳 (@yadv_saurabh) March 8, 2018

https://twitter.com/ISachinDubey/status/971618436303540224

Both men and #women representing our country in cricket
Both are doing excellent job but then also girls are being ignored in equal pay..
Why question for all..@BCCI@ICC #WomensDay pic.twitter.com/WpnhwR7AUO

— Mayank Deep (@Mayank_Dep) March 8, 2018