Virat Kohli is one of the richest cricketers on the planet and the only Indian in Forbes' rich list of top 100 athletes in 2020. He was slotted at the 66th spot with a reported earning of nearly 196 crores. The captain of Team India, Kohli is one of the players with a Grade A+ contract and draws a salary of Rs 7 crore per year.
Add to this the Rs 17 crores contract with the IPL franchise Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Virat Kohli, who has been with the RCB since 2008, was retained by the franchise for Rs 17 crore ahead of IPL 2018 mega-action. The highest retention amount that year was Rs 15 crore.
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Despite all this, Virat Kohli is still not the highest-paid captain in cricket or player if we only consider his salary as an international cricketer. The England players with red-ball contracts reportedly draw more money than India's Grade A+ players.
As per The Cricketer.com, those with ECB's red-ball contracts have a salary of around £700,000 per year (Rs 7.22 crore approx.). The amount of Rs 7.22 crore makes England Test captain Joe Root the highest-paid captain.
Though the amount for Kohli and Root will change if the incentives and other perks are added, as far as salary is concerned, Kohli sits next to Root.
Apart from Root, Jofra Archer beats Virat Kohli in terms of drawing more salary than the Indian captain. The report in cricketer.com adds that England's white-ball players earn roughly £170,000 (Rs 1.753 crore).
Apart from Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Jasprit Bumrah also have Grade A+ contracts. They have a salary of Rs 7 crore each. The Grade A+ bracket was introduced in 2018. The players who are regular in all three formats are offered the Grade A+ contract.
(the cricketer.com inputs)
