Cricketers Net worth 2023
Cricket is one of the most popular and largest sports in the world. Here in India, we have taken this game to our hearts and souls. Cricket is more than just a sport, it’s more like emotion to Indians.
Looking at this sport from an economical perspective, Cricket is a very profitable business or venture for different cricketing boards in several countries. With most of the players earning a fortune, companies working with this sport earning huge turnovers, Cricket is a money-bag not only in India but in places like Australia, England etc, where Cricket is popular.
The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) is one of the richest sports organizations in the world. Its estimated net worth is INR 14,680 crore. With the inception of IPL (Indian Premier League), cricket has especially grown popular and made the business go boom. Most players have made a fortune, with the toppers of the list being Sachin Tendulkar (INR 1250 Crores), Virat Kohli (INR 1125 crores) and MS Dhoni (INR 800-860 crores)
Three giants: The three top-most earning cricketers
What is Net Worth?
Before we dive into the topic, let’s see what Net Worth is.
The difference between the asset and the liability is known as Net Worth. It can be calculated for a person, organisation, team etc. Net worth can be even calculated for countries. However, there are many misconceptions regarding Net worth. It isn’t the net income of the person in particular, which is the money that is ‘coming in’, whereas Net worth is the
Assets are the items or resources owned by a person or company. E.g., Cars, buildings, Jewellery etc owned by them. To calculate net worth, the current market value of all the assets owned is to be identified.
An item which is payable by a person or company is known as Liability. E.g., bank debts, vendor payments etc.
Cricketer’s net worth:
Most cricketers bag a lot of money from their careers. However, it is not just from their sport but many other sources too. The net worth is calculated from the various income streams as mentioned below:
- Salaries/ Contracts from Cricketing Boards
- Their brands or companies
- Modelling or Advertisements
- Entertainment Industry
- Vehicles and properties they own
- Social media earnings
Salary/ Contract money:
The most basic source of a cricketer’s money is the sum of money they receive by signing contracts with their respective Cricket Boards. A cricket board is a governing body that deals with and controls all aspects related to cricket like hosting tournaments, paying salaries to players,
recruiting new players etc.Cricketers are not only paid by their boards in the form of yearly salary, but also by Match fees, Retainer fees, Individual bonuses and team bonuses. They also earn money by signing contracts with the league teams they play for, in tournaments like IPL (Indian Premier League)
Brand endorsements
This is the most prominent one off the list. Brand endorsements are worth a lot of money. Big companies sign years-long contracts with star players to promote their brands. The main idea behind it is, the brand, product or company gets appealed to the fans and followers of these players, thereby increasing their popularity, value, sales etc.
A few examples:
Virat Kohli is the brand ambassador of companies like Manyavar, Pepsi, Cinthol Deo, MRF, Boost, Fastrack, Reebok, American Tourister, Puma, Godrej, Head & shoulders and Nestle India. Kohli’s flamboyant attitude and cool personality appeal to the masses while promoting these brands. He is known to make more than INR 17 crores from these and he charges INR 2 crore per day.
Sachin Tendulkar, the ‘God of Cricket’ have endorsed brands like Pepsi, Adidas, TVS, MRF, Britannia, Canon, Philips, VISA, Reynolds, Sanyo, BPL, Boost, Toshiba, Sunfeast, Airtel, Castrol, Colgate. As a person admired by all, for being always grounded and non-controversial, Sachin makes a good brand ambassador.
MS Dhoni ‘Captain cool’ might be probably the Indian cricketer with the most endorsements. He was once even dubbed as ‘God of big deals’, for the number of brand endorsements he did. He charges INR 1.5 crores per day for these deals.
Indian spinner R Ashwin is a brand ambassador for Bombay Shaving Company
The legendary Brt Lee was a brand ambassador for Time
English batsman Jos Butler is a brand ambassador for Kookaburra, a sports goods company.
Shreyas Iyer is a brand ambassador of boAt
Cricketer’s brands or companies
Many cricketers have their own companies or start a new brand in collaboration with other big companies:
- Virat Kohli co-owns the popular clothing line Wrogn. He also co-founded One8 (named after his famous jersey number 18) in association with the sports goods giant Puma.
- MS Dhoni co-owns Seven (named after his famous jersey number 7), a sports label.
- Spektacom is a sports technology startup owned by Anil Kumble, former Indian cricket spinning great.
Se7en is a brand owned by MS Dhoni
Shares Cricketers own or investments:
Cricketers usually own shares or have their investments in other companies, making them co-owners. They also invest in real estate, rising start-ups and such companies.
- The legendary Virender Sehwag owned a restaurant in Delhi’s Moti Nagar. He also launched the Sehwag International School in Haryana.
- Investments in other sports teams, like Virat Kohli owning shares in the ISL team FC Goa, a tennis team UAE Royals and a gym-chain Chisel. Also, the ISL team Kerala Blasters and Chennayin FC is co-owned by Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni respectively
- The former Indian captain, Sourav Ganguly has invested in tech start-up Class plus. The legendary Kapil Dev has invested in many start-ups as an angel investor.
Cricketers Modelling or Advertisements
Most cricketers appeal to the modelling industry for not only their game and fame but also having a fit body. They also appear in commercial video/photo advertisements, mainly for the brands they endorse itself.
- Kohli signs contracts for about 3 days with per day charge of Rs 2 crore. Brands utilize those three days for photo shoots etc
- MS Dhoni is also known for numerous TV commercial advertisements, in which he is featured.
Entertainment Industry
Cricketers also earn their fortune from the entertainment industry.
- Biopics made on their lives. A few examples are, the movie MS Dhoni: The untold story based on MS Dhoni’s life starring the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput, the docu-film Sachin: A billion dreams based on the life of Sachin Tendulka
MS Dhoni: The untold story, a biopicbased on MS Dhoni’s life starring the late actor Sushant Singh Rajput.
Vehicles and properties Cricketers own
Having made a fortune, these players spend a huge sum of money on buying things they want and love. Ranging from luxury cars, private jets, sprawling mansions, antiques, collectables, farmhouses etc.
Cricketers Social media earnings:
Modern times are the era of social media. It’s more than just socialising, but another means of earning money too. Cricketers, being popular on social media utilise this to promote themselves, their brands or endorsements along with other content they share, like photos, opinions etc.
- Virat Kohli is the cricketer with the greatest number of followers on Instagram (214 million followers, a number way bigger than that of most famous international athletes and Hollywood A-listers). He is the 14th most followed on Instagram and reportedly charges $1,088,000 (INR 8.69 crore) for one sponsored Instagram post.