BCCI released a list of payments in three charts which reveal the list of payments done above 25 lakhs in 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 the 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.
Among the top cricketers are the Indian skipper, Virat Kohli and Umesh Yadav, they were paid RS. 1.82 crores each as match fee in the whole home season. The reason behind Kohli getting such a whooping amount is the fact that he is the skipper over all three formats. Yadav, meanwhile, has earned as much as Kohli despite being a grade lower (‘B’ compared with Kohli’s ‘A’) because he played 12 out of 13 matches in the season. Ajinkya Rahane, who is in Grade A, is the third highest paid, earning Rs 1.69 crore.
Kohli tops the Tax- free money received chart too! Kohli received Rs 2.61 crore from the tax-free portions of prize money from the International Cricket Council for being the No 1-ranked team, a cash reward announced by the BCCI. Rahane (Rs 2.53 crore) and Ravichandran Ashwin (Rs 2.51 crore) came in second and third respectively.
Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri and Sanjay Manjrekar are BCCI’s top commentators and regular ones. Gavaskar and Shastri received 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, receiving a whopping amount Rs 61 lakhs. Other BCCI-contracted commentators were not listed, which could only mean they did not receive more than Rs 25 lakh for the series.
