David Warner and Steve Smith’s IPL income soars to $2.4 million

The Indian Premier League (IPL) fever has already begun as teams have now decided on the players they would retain and who doesn’t fit into their plans. The mega-auction is also round the corner where top international cricketers would go under the hammer. The money involved in this season is much more with Star bagging the broadcasting rights for over Rs. 16,000 crores. The likes of Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals are also back which is going to make the event ever more interesting.

Among the retainees were the Aussie skipper Steve Smith and his deputy David Warner. Smith was the only player his franchise chose to hold onto while Warner was one of the two. This comes in as a very pleasant news for the duo as they are now slated to earn double the amount that they earned last season for playing in the IPL.

RR and SRH retain their skippers

Smith was retained by the Rajasthan Royals while David Warner will continue leading the Sunrisers Hyderabad. The Australian stalwarts will earn $2.4 million from their IPL contracts. This will make them the highest paid Australians in the IPL after they overtook Shane Warne’s salary of $2.1 million.

Smith earns $2 million as a base salary from his national contract. Warner gets $1.4 million from Cricket Australia. Thus, they will earn more by playing domestic T20 cricket for two months than what they would earn in 12 months through a central contract.

The Australians have made their mark in the IPL. Warner has led Hyderabad to the title while Smith took Pune to the finals. The likes of Mitchell Starc, Glenn Maxwell, Chris Lynn and Pat Cummins could still go for big sum at the IPL auction.

Among the other players, Virat Kohli’s income jumped to $3.4 million while MS Dhoni was the only other player whose income rose above the Australian giants.