Ever heard of a sport called cricket?
Cricket may not be well known in some countries, but for others it’s a pretty big deal.
So big, in fact, that some of the best cricket players have paychecks that would really blow
your mind!
You may not know them, but you might just consider consulting them before your next
career change.
Just make sure you move to the right country too.
So what is cricket?
The sport may seem a bit complicated for first time watchers so I’m going to try explain
it as simply as possible.
It could probably be compared to baseball, but there are quite a few differences.
Two teams of eleven players each take turns to bat and bowl.
Let’s call them Team A and Team B. In this case, bowling is kind of like pitching; someone
who throws a ball really hard at the person with the bat.
The batting team, Team A, has two people at each end of a cricket pitch; a rectangular
piece of hard grass in the middle of a grass field.
Team B has a bowler that throws the ball to one of the batters and a wicket keeper behind
the batter.
His job is to try to ‘catch out’ the batter by catching the ball after it was touched
by the bat.
Similar to a strike out but it only has to happen once.
The rest of Team B are fielders that also try to catch out the batter or throw the ball
to the wicket; little wooden thingies that need to be knocked down if the batter is on
the wrong side of the line.
If the ball is hit far enough, the two batters of Team A have to run and basically switch
places.
If they make it safely over the line without their wicket being hit by the ball they have
one run.
Runs are the points that Team A build up and Team B has to beat when it’s their turn
to bat.
If they hit the ball far enough they can get more points without actually having to run.
There are a few more nitty gritty details, but I think that’s about the gist of it.
Pretty simple right?
So can their salaries really be so astronomical that it’s worth me telling you more about
it?
Yes, yes they are.
You see the average cricketer salary varies in each country and this is causing some dispute.
In Australia, for example, international male players would have started off with around
270,000 dollars per year in 2018.
So if that’s the starting salary, what do the MVPs get?
In Australia there is a quite a gap between the top players and those who still have to
prove themselves.
The salary for top tier players peaks at close to 1.4 million dollars.
This is thanks to the agreement that players get to share 30% of the money that the sport
brings in for the country.
That’s really generous!
But keep in mind that these players are all getting other forms of endorsements as well,
which makes that yearly salary only a chunk of the actual amount they see in their bank
account.
Some of the other top cricketing countries have a middle tier to bridge the gap between
the newbies and the superstars.
England cricketers who started out in 2017 received a salary of about 265,000 dollars
per year, with the middle tier players pocketing close to 600,000 dollars and the high rollers
earning just under 1 million.
See how it pays to live in the right country?
But like I said, this is purely the salary and not the total income.
So still not a bad career choice!
Let’s take a look at a few more heavy weight countries when it comes to international cricket.
First off is India.
Here, the salaries of players are also divided into three tiers; Grade A, B and C. Based
on the value of each player, they sign individual contracts, with Grade A being the highest
at approximately 150,000 dollars and Grade C earning 46,500.
However, if a player shows some outstanding qualities in regards to their cricketing abilities,
they can earn over 300,000 dollars every year.
New Zealand and West Indies cricket teams’ top players earned around 140,000 dollars
per year and Sri Lanka comes in 7th place with their key players receiving around 120,000.
I think I understand why there is a bit of a dispute when it comes to earnings.
There is quite a huge gap between all tiers when comparing the countries.
And unfortunately not all cricketers can play for one country.
That would probably be counterproductive to the growth of the sport.
Let’s hope the countries can find a way to bridge the gaps a bit.
As mentioned before, these players have other means of increasing the balance in their personal
bank accounts.
Like many other sports, there are a few different competitions every year that don’t bind
players by country, meaning they have the option of more than one contract that generates
a salary.
And of course, there are endorsements to take into consideration.
This means that even if their contract has a lower yearly salary than players in other
countries, they could still earn more in total if they are really good.
And let’s just say most of them are really, really good at what they do.
Take a look at some of the top earners in international cricket in 2017.
The current captain of the Indian Cricket team, Virat Kohli, was the only Indian, as
well as the only cricket player, that was featured in the Forbes list of “The World’s
Highest Paid Athletes” and earned a mind blowing 22 million dollars in 2017 alone;
give or take.
However, when it comes to net worth, former Indian captain, MS Dhoni, still outshines
Kohli, at a staggering 111 million.
But hey, no one knows what the future holds in store!
With India holding the first two spots of highest paid cricketers, West Indies player
Chris Gayle, from Jamaica, comes in third place earning around 7 and a half million
dollars in 2017.
Australia and South Africa have players that tie for fourth highest paid in their sport
in 2017, David Warner and AB De Villiers.
If you are thinking of seriously taking up cricket, you should probably know that they
do, in fact, work very hard for those big bucks.
It’ll take a lot of effort and superior skill to even start competing on the level
these guys have already mastered.
You see, apart from being some of the highest paid athletes, cricketers have also been labelled
among the fittest.
Men’s Health UK actually has a workout to “get cricket fit”.
Not one I will be attempting any time soon.
I guess money isn’t everything!
Are you as shocked as I was by some of the facts of this interesting sport?
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