The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) revealed the actual salaries of retained Indian Premier League (IPL) players on Friday ahead of the ninth season of the lucrative T20 tournament.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli is the highest paid player with an actual salary of Rs.15 crore ahead of Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Team Pune) and Shikhar Dhawan (Sun Risers Hyderabad) who earn Rs.12.5 crore each.
Dhoni and Suresh Raina were the first picks by newly-formed franchises Team Pune and Team Rajkot respectively at the recent IPL player draft in Mumbai. The two franchises, who have replaced Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Rajasthan Royals (RR), paid Rs.12.5 crore each for the duo.
But the BCCI has clarified that the 10 players who were bought at the draft will continue to receive the salaries which they did from their previous teams. As a result, Raina will continue to receive a salry of Rs.9.5 crore although Rs.12.5 crore will be deducted from Team Rajkot's salary purse.
Mumbai Indians' West Indies all-rounder Kieron Pollard draws the highest salary among the foreign players at Rs.9.7 crore. His official purse deduction is Rs.9.5 crore.
There are several players who are being paid less than their official purse deductions.
Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma and Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) skipper Gautam Gambhir are the only other players apart from Kohli, Dhoni and Dhawan to be paid Rs.10 crore or more in a season.
While Gambhir receives Rs.10 crore, Rohit, who captained Mumbai Indians to the IPL title last season, receives Rs.1.15 crore. But both their official purse stands at Rs.1.25 crore. Manan Vohra is being paid Rs.3.5 lakh by Kings XI Punjab, which is less than 10 percent of the value of his Rs.4 crore official purse.
Among the foreigners, David Miller, Steve Smith, Brendon McCullum and James Faulkner are receiving less than their purse deduction amounts.
Each franchise is required to spend a minimum of Rs.40 crore but not more than Rs.66 crore on their squad. But when a franchise decides to retain players, the purse deduction values are taken into account to calculate the amounts they are allowed to spend.
