20% of IPL salary pool is shared between just 10 players

The Indian Premier League (IPL) is famed for unanimously being the richest T20 league in the world. With players going up for auction every year at mind-boggling prices, the amount of money to exchange hands is bound to be hefty. According to recent reports, nearly 20% of the money to have been disbursed till date has found its share in the hands of just 10 players.

Ever since its inception in 2008, IPL has hosted some of the biggest names in the game, including the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Chris Gayle, Ricky Ponting, MS Dhoni and dozens more. As of the current eleventh running season of the tournament, a mammoth total of INR 4,288.15 crores in salaries has been handed out to a total of 696 cricketers, including 270 foreigners. However, the division of this figure has revealed a large concentration of the sum in the possession of a handful of players.

MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli amongst the top IPL earners

According to a list published by MONEYBALL, which is the professional player’s salary calculation tool from InsideSport, the top 10 highest earning IPL cricketers have earned 19.17% of total salaries disbursed by the franchisees till date and the corresponding figures add up to a staggering total of INR 821.83 crores. These figures have brought out a gaping hole of disparity that exists between the salaries received by the top bracket players and the other participants in the league.

The same list goes on to produce figures of the top 20 cricketers in the IPL salary ranking having earned a cumulative total of INR 1,350.33 crores (31.49% of total IPL salaries). While former Indian skipper, Dhoni occupies the top spot in the IPL salary ranking with INR 107.8 crores to his name, Rohit Sharma comes in second at INR 101.6 crores. Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina also find places in the top half of the list.

As for the remaining half of the ranking table, fiery players like AB de Villiers, Shane Watson, Robin Uthappa and Shikhar Dhawan find mention and it is these 10 players who have bagged almost 1/5th of the total IPL pay purse till date. Amongst foreign participants, AB de Villiers is the highest earning foreigner at INR 69.5 crores.

For all the latest cricket news and other details follow CricTracker.