Arguably, the most controversial post in the cricketing world but surely a big-time money spinner in terms of remuneration. Yes, we are talking about the post of Team India's Head Coach which is currently being held by Ravi Shastri. If reports are to be believed, Shastri is the world's highest paid cricket coach followed by Australia’s Darren Lehmann and England’s Trevor Bayliss. According to Cricinfo’s Cricket Monthly, coach Ravi Shastri draws a whopping $1.17 million (Rs 7 crore 60 lakh) annual salary which is significantly more than
Lehmann’s annual pay of $0.55 million and Bayliss’ 0.52 million yearly earning. Touted as the world's wealthiest cricket board - BCCI is known to be the epicentre of power and money in the gentlemen's game. And by those standards, it doesn't come as a surprise for many if Shastri is earning this amount for the role as Indian cricket team's head coach. However, the margin of difference between the other two coaches, Lehmann and Bayliss, is quite a lot.
In fact, the current Indian coach earns less only than what the top players from Australia, England and India take home annually. BCCI recently revealed the names of Indian cricket team members who were paid a salary of more than 25 lakhs for their services. Ravi Shastri was paid over Rs 1.20 crore for his 3 months tenure after taking charge in July. The fee paid was reported to be around Rs 1,20,87,187 for a three month period between 18th July to 18th October as per
the BCCI website.
The report also reveals the reason that cricket coaches in the subcontinent region are paid much higher for their role than the players itself. The trend of Asian teams coaches getting paid big can be traced in Pakistan and Bangladesh as well where Mickey Arthur and Chandika Hathurasingha both earn more than the top players respectively.
Interestingly, Shastri also earns more than the India skipper Virat Kohli in terms of annual salary from the board. But most importantly it does not include the money Kohli earns from advertising. The Delhi-born cricketer earns around $1 million per year in salary, this is exclusive of the money he earns from advertising. Kohli also falls behind in the list highest paid cricket captains, his counterparts - Steve Smith (Australia) and Joe Root (England) earn 1.47 million dollars and 1.27 million dollars respectively.
Smith earns 20 times more than what his counterpart, Zimbabwe skipper Graeme Cremer earns. But, if we include all the earning's of Kohli’s from the BCCI, brand endorsements and IPL, the 28-year old is the richest cricketer in the world, at the moment.
Ravi Shastri was in the race with former Indian batsman Virender Sehwag for India's coach job. But due to the unanimous backing of skipper Virat Kohli and most of the current Indian team members, Shastri got the nod and was appointed as the head coach of the Men in Blue. The 55-year old had earlier served as the team manager for India before Anil Kumble took over as the head coach.
India will next take on New Zealand in the 3-match ODI series which starts on October 22 in Mumbai.
