BCCI's Rs 50 lakh to women cricketers, Railways add to bonanza

The BCCI on Thursday presented Rs 50 lakh to all the Indian women cricketers who lost the ICC World Cup narrowly while the Railways gave Rs 13 lakh each to the 10 players from the department besides promoting them.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India presented cheques of Rs 50 lakh each to the cricketers and Rs 25 lakh each to the support staff of the team. The event was held at the Taj Mansingh Hotel here.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu promoted the 10 Railway players in the Indian team and gave away cash awards amounting to a total of Rs 1.30 crore to them.

Prabhu declared team skipper Mithali Raj and her deputy Harmanpreet Kaur as gazetted officers and announced out-of-turn promotions to the other eight Railway players.

The Indian eves suffered a nine-run defeat to hosts England in the final.

Besides Raj and Harmanpreet, the others from the Railways in the team are left-arm spinners Ekta Bisht and Rajeshwari Gaikwad, opener Punam Raut, batswoman Veda Krishnamurthy, leg-spinner Poonam Yadav, wicketkeepers Sushma Verma and Nuzhat Parween and pacer Mona Mesharam.

Prabhu spoke at an event to felicitate the players at the Rail Bhavan which was also attended by Railway Board Chairman A.K. Mital.

Earlier, the team was felicitated by Sports Minister Vijay Goel at his residence.

--IANS

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