Jump to content

Who gets paid what in cricket


Recommended Posts

Quote

Are Indian players the world's best-paid cricketers? And where does cricket stand among other sports in terms of player remuneration?

OSMAN SAMIUDDIN, NAGRAJ GOLLAPUDI, GIRISH TS, SRINATH SRIPATH | OCTOBER 17, 2017

The highest-earning captain in international cricket in 2017 stands to make nearly 20 times as much as the lowest-earning; the top cricketers in the world earn around US$1 million from playing international cricket; the top Pakistani annual contract is worth less in monetary terms than the top Ireland one; and coaching a subcontinent side, though bad for job security, is great for the bank balance. These are some of the key findings from figures collected by ESPNcricinfo in a survey of central contract salaries and match fees around the world.

The headline is that Steven Smith, the Australia captain, will earn US$1.469 million this year, while his Zimbabwean counterpart Graeme Cremer stands to earn $86,000. The top Indian earners in international cricket are Virat Kohli, the captain, who pulled in approximately $1 million this year, and coach Ravi Shastri, whose annual salary of $1.17 million is comparable to that of any of the game's top players.

The figures are based on international cricket, and do not take into account player earnings from T20 leagues, other domestic engagements or endorsements. Most boards (see below*) pay their players a share of their commercial rights, while others don't, or distribute them differently. The pay figures in this piece do not include the various bonuses players are paid for wins and individual performances. Factoring all those in might shuffle the rankings, but that is likelier to happen at the top of the list. And if anything, it will increase the disparity in earnings between top and bottom.

What is crystal clear is that the richer cricket has become, the more inequality it has bred. That, you might say, is a modern truism of the game, but as the calendar is being fundamentally reshaped by domestic T20 leagues and the riches they offer players, the magnitude of that inequality should serve as a clear warning to the international game.

In most cases salary figures and contract details are not made available publicly; the information in this article, culled from their contacts by our correspondents from around the globe, strives to be as accurate as is possible.

269059.jpg

© ESPNcricinfo Ltd

*Players from England, Australia, South Africa and New Zealand receive a share of their board's commercial earnings as a guaranteed part of their contracts. Some boards, like Cricket South Africa and CA add these payments to the retainer.

The BCCI pays 26% of its gross revenue every year to its players; half of that is distributed among international players. How much each players gets, however, is calculated based on the number of matches they play.

The ECB pays the following approximate amounts according to player contract grade: $180,000 (top), $80,000 (mid), $30,000 (lowest). This payment, however, is linked to commercial obligations each player fulfils, and so varies from player to player. It is also not clear whether this is an additional payment on top of each retainer, or whether it is factored into the retainer amounts. For the purposes of this article, we have taken the payment to be part of the total retainer amount - if, however, you add on the full $180,000 to, say, Joe Root's total earnings, he nudges slightly ahead of Steven Smith as the highest earner.

The BCB does not pay any money from its commercial rights earnings to its players. Pakistan's players receive a certain amount - thought to be approximately $3000 per game - from the PCB's main sponsor as logo money, but this is restricted purely to the XI that plays in an international (and so goes also to players not in the central contracts pool).

Because of the different ways in how commercial rights are distributed across the globe - or not - the total earnings figures you see can only be close approximates.

Four divisions, not two
We know that a clear divide has grown in cricket between the Big Three and the rest, the haves and the have-nots. What the total earnings figures show (based on the top-earning player in each country), however, is that there are actually four segments: an elite three of Australia, England and India; an upper-middle-class from South Africa; a middle-class quartet of Sri Lanka, Pakistan, West Indies and New Zealand; and finally, a working-class duo of Bangladeshi and Zimbabwean cricketers.

269061.jpg

© ESPNcricinfo Ltd

There are four divisions even when it comes to the lowest contract grades, though grouped differently: England and Australia in one; South Africa and West Indies another; India and New Zealand next; and then Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The disparity remains - at about $265,000, an England player on the ECB's lowest contract (England group their contracts not in grades but in terms of red-ball, white-ball and all-format cricketers) still earns nearly 20 times as much as a Bangladesh player on the lowest contract ($15,000).

Indian riches
Don't be fooled by the central contract figures. If you look only at the contract retainers (and not match-fees payments), Australia and England pay their top players nearly four and three times as much as India - where the top-grade contract is worth $311,745 - and even cash-strapped CSA pays its top player more. But the total payout an Indian player gets is a combination of his contract money and a percentage of the BCCI's gross revenue, calculated on the number of matches he has played in one calendar year. So Kohli, who has a Grade A contract, would earn his retainer plus his share from the 13% of gross revenue. Although no definite numbers for the last two years are available, Kohli's estimated income from his contract payments and his share of the board's revenue has been about $1 million - which places him in the top band of cricket's earners. If you factor in his earnings from the IPL and multiple individual endorsements it ends up making him probably the richest cricketer in reality.

Still, India's contracted players are unhappy with their latest, upgraded annual retainers. In the new pay structure model presented by Anil Kumble to the BCCI in May, while he was still coach, he had argued the team should get a share from the board's media rights. That discontent is additional fuel for those - including the Lodha Committee, incidentally - who feel India needs to establish a players' association.

269062.jpg

© ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Read more: http://www.thecricketmonthly.com/story/1123792/who-gets-paid-what-in-cricket

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...