IPL players earn more per game than those in any other league
The past decade has witnessed the Indian Premier League take the global sporting world by storm. Entertaining massive crowds and generating whopping revenues year after year, India's domestic T20 cricket league has certainly forged its stake for supremacy among similar tournaments held elsewhere.
While it is a known fact that the IPL churns out big numbers and also, inevitably, pays hefty amounts to the players in each edition, a recent finding has just substantiated its place among the world's richest leagues.
As per the Global Sports Salaries Survey 2018, the IPL players earn more per game than the athletes participating in any other sporting league in the world.
Topping the charts for the 'Average first-team pay per game', India's cash-rich cricketing tournament has surpassed numerous other popular leagues. At an average of £274,624 (per game) earned by each player of the first-team in 2018, IPL has surpassed the second-placed NFL (£138,354) and the third-placed Premier League (£78,703) by massive margins.
Among the remaining 15 leagues evaluated, NBA and La Liga followed with figures of £72,023 and £57,923 respectively.
However, it is to be noted that the number of games per regular season in other leagues is far more than those in the IPL.
The survey detailed that in 2018, the player wages enhanced considerably in the IPL. In fact, the pro-rated average annual salary in the league rose from $3.9m in 2017 to $5m in 2018, registering a handsome increase of 29.8 percent.
On an individual team-front, Kolkata Knight Riders stood as the franchise paying the highest amount to each of its first-team players in 2018. While KKR registered figures of £4,035,237 in the category, Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians, with figures of £3,933,466 and £3,913,111, bagged the second and third places respectively.
The champions of the latest season, Chennai Super Kings, with an average annual pay per player of £3,607,797, came last on the list, while runners-up Sunrisers Hyderabad closed in on the fifth spot.
The report also revealed that for 2018, the IPL registered an average salary of £3.8m per player, while NBA continued to remain the world's top paying league with an average basic salary of £5.8m.