The Board of Control for Cricket in India has made public a list of payments it made above Rs 25 lakh
in the month of May 2017. This includes match fees of India players for the 2016-’17 home season, tax-free portions of various amounts handed to players, match hosting fees given to venues across the country, money paid to television feed production crew, travel and accommodation charges of players and staff, and a lot more.
Indian cricketers contracted with the BCCI get Rs 2 crore (Grade A), Rs 1 crore (Grade B) and Rs 50 lakh (Grade C) as a fixed amount per year. Apart from this, they are paid Rs 15 lakh per Test, Rs 6 lakh per ODI and Rs 3 lakh for every T20 International they play.
India captain Virat Kohli and pacer Umesh Yadav were the two highest paid cricketers over the home season in terms of match fees, earning Rs 1.82 crore each. This is no surprise considering Kohli is captain across all three formats of the game. Yadav, meanwhile, has earned as much as Kohli despite being a grade lower (‘B’ compared with Kohli’s ‘A’). The 29-year-old played in 12 out of India’s 13 Tests in the last home season. Ajinkya Rahane, who is in Grade A, came in third, earning Rs 1.69 crore.
Kohli leads the pack again when it comes to tax-free money received. The India captain pocketed Rs 2.61 crore from the tax-free portions of prize money received from the International Cricket Council for being the No 1-ranked team, a cash reward announced by the BCCI, and retainership fees. Rahane (Rs 2.53 crore) and Racvchandran Ashwin (Rs 2.51 crore) came in second and third respectively.
The BCCI’s three main commentators – Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar – also made a killing from the India-Australia series. While Gavaskar and Shastri pocketed Rs 44 lakh each, Manjrekar received Rs 33 lakh for his services during the four-Test series. Former Australia captain Michael Clarke, however, was the highest paid commentator for the series, receving a cool Rs 61 lakh for sharing his wisdom. Other BCCI-contracted commentators were not listed, which could only mean they did not receive more than Rs 25 lakh for the series.
