Mithali Raj, Stafanie Taylor call for equal pay and perks for women's cricket

Ahead of their crucial group match in the ICC Women’s World Twenty20, India captain Mithali Raj and her West Indian counterpart Stafanie Taylor called for an equal pay and perks.

India and West Indies go into tomorrow’s game having lost to England. However, the West Indian eves are better off having notched up two wins from three matches as against just one by India.

“As for me personally, I feel the game is the same, the rules are the same. But yes, when you see how many people turn up to see men’s game because they look up at it as an entertainment package. A lot of people come to watch, so the revenue input is more than women’s cricket,” Mithali said when asked if women cricketers deserve equal pay package.

She added, “People are still trying to catch up with women’s cricket. So, maybe down the lane, in a year or two, when women’s cricket does very well and starts attracting more crowd, then I feel it deserves same (pay) or at par with men’s cricket.”

When the question was directed at Taylor, she said, “You have actually hit me in the head there. We would love if we get the same pay as the men because we think we are working just as hard.

Coming back to the match, Mithali said they will need to improve their batting.

“As a unit we will have to perform together. We expect better performance from the batting unit,” Raj said.

She pointed out in the last two games against Pakistan and England, during crunch situations, the performance has not been upto the mark.

“We want better performance from the bowling attack also. Fielding has been good, but in patches, consistency is not there,” she said.

On the other hand, Taylor said they may have lost narrowly to England in Dharamsala, but they had put the loss behind and were looking ahead to tomorrow’s tie.