Indian pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah piped Virat Kohli to become Board of Control for Cricket in India's (BCCI) highest paid cricketer in 2020. While Bumrah reportedly pocketed a whopping INR 1.38 crore as match salary this year, Kohli received a sum of INR 1.29 crore. Had the Indian skipper played the on-going Boxing Day Test match against Australia, he would have topped the chart. However, he flew back home for his first child's expected birth, and Bumrah became BCCI's highest-paid cricketer. Virat Kohli Hails Team India's Display on Day 1 of 2nd Test vs Australia.
Notably, both Bumrah and Kohli are the holders of Grade A+ contract. However, the former bagged more money as fees for playing more games. Bumrah is playing his fourth Test this year while the talismanic batsman has participated in just three Test matches. The pacer also participated in nine ODIs and eight T20Is in 2020. As per BCCI's guidelines, an Indian cricketer earns INR 15 lakh, INR 6 lakh and INR 3 lakh for each Test, ODI and T20I respectively. Jasprit Bumrah's Fiery Spell, Mohammed Siraj & Shubman Gill's Impressive Show on Debut Praised.
While Bumrah receives INR 7 crore through the BCCI annual contract, he bagged INR 1.38 crore as match fees compared to Kohli's INR 1.29 crore. Ravindra Jadeja, who bagged INR 5 crore as salary from his Grade A contract, is third in the list with total match fees of INR 96 lakh.
Dashing opener Rohit Sharma is the most significant absentee from the top-five list as he didn't play many matches this year due to injuries. Playing just three ODIs and four T20Is, the Hitman received INR 30 lakh.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 27, 2020 10:55 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).