CHENNAI: With the Justice Lodha Committee set to file its report on Monday in the Supreme Court recommending changes to the BCCI’s constitution and manner of functioning, the cricket board on Friday for the first time released the actual salary details of retained players by the IPL franchises.
According to the list, Test captain Virat Kohli is the highest paid player pocketing Rs 15 crore per season. M S Dhoni, who was acquired by Pune, will get Rs 12.5 crore, the same amount he got when he was associated with the Chennai Super Kings.
In the past, the BCCI has come under intense criticism for not making the actual player salaries public since franchises were believed to offer more than what was being deducted from their purse.
“It is an agreement between the two parties and there was no need to make it public. They only had to inform the BCCI. Now, with the Lodha panel set to file its report, they will question the transparency and the foremost issue will be to reveal the salaries. That is why the BCCI has released it now. It will reduce the impact a little bit. Even if a franchise reveals a player’s salary, he can get more through other perks,” a board official told Express.
The case of Kohli is curious as Royal Challengers Bangalore, by virtue of retaining him, lose Rs 12.5 crore from its purse, but end up paying more to the right-hander. He isn’t the only one who gets more than what is deducted from a franchise’s purse. Kohli’s teammate Chris Gayle, Mumbai Indians’ Harbhajan Singh, Lasith Malinga and Ambati Rayudu are other such examples.
Meanwhile, hard-hitting batsman Rohit Sharma, who cost Mumbai Indians Rs 12.5 crore, actually takes a pay-cut and pockets only Rs 11.5 crore.
Even Suresh Raina, one of the star players, will now get only Rs 9.5 crore, while Rajkot spent Rs 12.5 crore from its purse, as the BCCI had assured players of the Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals that the new franchises — Pune and Rajkot — would pay the same they were drawing earlier.
The one who has perhaps got the unkindest cut of all is Kings XI Punjab’s Manan Vohra. Though the franchise retained him by losing Rs 4 crore from its purse, he gets paid only Rs 35 lakh. According to the IPL governing council, each franchise is supposed to spend a minimum of Rs 40 crore in the auction with the maximum being Rs 66 crore.