[OC] How much money do Indian International and Domestic cricketers make (from playing alone) - AKA how Ranji needs to start paying more!

Posting here, since my recent original content posts have been declined by the mods over at r/cricket, so don't want to waste my time with them. This post analyzes how much Indian Cricketers could be making from Cricket, and how much behind pure Red ball players are if they don't get an IPL contract. Caveat: I tried cross checking my sources, but if any of the figures are incorrect, please do call it out! *Note: in case any non-Indian reads this:* * *INR 1 Cr / Crore = $116K appx* * *INR 1 Lakh = $1,160 appx* **A: Sources of income** * International Retainer: INR 7 Cr for A+ (3-4 people), 5 Cr for A (3 format with some gaps), 3 Cr for B (2 format), 1 Cr for C (1 format) * Test Cricket: Per game INR 15 Lakh * ODI Cricket: Per game INR 6 Lakh * T20I Cricket: Per game INR 3 Lakh * Test Cricket incentive scheme: Rs 45 Lakh per game for playing 75% or more tests, Rs 30 Lakh for 50-75%.. * Domestic Ranji: Per day INR 60K (so like INR 2.4 Lakh for a 4 day game?) * Domestic ODI (Vijay Hazare): INR 60K per game * Domestic T20 (Syed Mushtaq): INR 17.5K per game * IPL: season contracts. If fit, you get your full contracted amount. Minimum is INR 30 Lakh usually, and majority (nearly 60%) of contracted Indian players get atleast 1 Cr contracts **B: Being a Test Cricketer really pays off!** * I didn't check for individuals per se, but did some simulations for the above pay structure.. someone in A+ and playing each and every game, **would have earned Rs 17 Crore** in 2024 from playing for India alone. A whopping 9 Cr from this would have come purely from per game and incentive fee in Tests. * This amount still remains quite good if you play majority of tests. Above 10 Cr if someone played 70-80% of all games. Even a pure Test player who played, say, 12 tests for India in 2024 and only 1-2 ODIs (no T20Is), would earn **INR 10.2 Crore.** **C: If you only play ODI / T20I for India, you need IPL to earn you big money** * A non Test player - say someone in C grade contract and only playing T20Is in 2024, would earn 3.6 Cr even if they played 80% of T20Is. * This is good money, but they need to look elsewhere (IPL) for the big money **D: 60% of IPL Indian players earn 1 Cr or more per season.** * Of the 157 players listed in my source, 92 had 1 Cr or higher contract after 2025 auction (or retention). Among the remaining 65, 20 had amounts ranging from 95 Lakh to 35 lakh, while another 45 had a contract amount of 30 Lakh * 30 Lakh ofcourse - no chump change but I can get a decent student a nearly guaranteed 30 Lakh salary after 4 years of college, 2 years of MBA and 1-2 years of grind in the consulting industry. So a high risk career like Cricket doesn't make sense to simply earn 30 Lakh for 5-6 years, you know? * But that said, you do have nearly 100 players every year who can make 1 Cr from playing (or being in reserves) in IPL and that's great! * And the India players ofcourse earn a lot more - routinely above INR 10 Cr, and now some even above 15 (or even 20) Crore! **E: If you are not in IPL and you don't play for India, Domestic cricket is a lonely world** * The most a domestic player could expect (if they play heavily across all formats), is maybe INR 30-35 Lakh. As I said above - that is not a very attractive prospect at all. You can make that money in many other ways in India today, with far far far less risk. * Ofcourse- it IS attractive to the 80-90% of the countrymen who don't have the advantage of a middle/upper middle class upbringing and prospects.. in which case ofcourse. * But consider this: The TOP ranji player will, in most years, earn less than the BOTTOM IPL reserve player for far greater effort and grind. Needless to say, every kid wants to play IPL! **Post script: Well.. if you are Virat Kohli,** you charge 8-10 Crore to smile for 3 minutes for one campaign, and do that about 20 times over to maybe turn over 100 Cr in no time. I can't even fathom how little the actual playing money means to them. This post is for the others for whom Cricket money actually means something.