India vs Pakistan Cricket Salary Comparison: Which Cricket team Earns Better, Pakistani or Indian?

Cricket, like all other sports, is not just about the things which take place on the field. It is one of the most followed sports and has a global audience. Cricketers draw huge amounts of money in the form of salaries and contracts. India vs Pakistan is the fiercest rivalry in cricket. The two archrivals always draw global attention when they face off each other.

Pakistan Cricket Board recently announced the list of contracted players for 2024 and its amount this year. Check out a comprehensive comparison between India vs Pakistan cricket salary to find who earns better, Indian and Pakistani cricketers?

Pakistan Cricketers salary 2024-22

Pakistan Cricket team will have 20 contracted players for the 2024-22 period. The players will be divided into three categories – A, B and C.

  • Category A (₹80 Lakhs): Hasan Ali, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Shaheen Afridi
  • Category B (₹50 Lakhs): Azhar Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, Fakhar Zaman, Fawad Alam and Yasir Shah
  • Category C ( ₹40 Lakhs): Mohammad Nawaz, Abid Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Imam-ul-Haq, Haris Rauf, Nauman Ali and Sarfaraz Ahmed
  • Emerging Category: Usman Qadir, Imran Butt, Shahnawaz Dahani

Pakistan captain Babar Azam alongside Hasan Ali, Shaheen Afridi, and Mohammad Rizwan, are the team’s highest earners. Along with the three main categories, the PCB has an Emerging category for young talented emerging players.

India Men’s Cricketers Salary 2024-22

Team India has 28 cricketers on BCCI central contract for 2024-22. The players are put into four grades, namely A+, A, B, C.

  • A+ Grade (₹ 7 Crores): Jasprit Bumrah, Rohit Sharma & Virat Kohli
  • A Grade (₹ 5 Crores): Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hardik Pandya, Ishant Sharma, KL Rahul,  Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rishabh Pant & Shikhar Dhawan
  • B Grade (₹ 3 Crores): Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mayank Agarwal, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav & Wriddhiman Saha.
  • C Grade (₹1 Crore): Axar Patel, Deepak Chahar, Hanuma Vihari, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohd. Siraj, Navdeep Saini, Shreyas Iyer, Shubman Gill, Washington Sundar & Yuzvendra Chahal.

Indian captain Virat Kohli alongside ace bowler Jaspit Bumrah and opener Rohit Sharma are the highest earners of the Indian team. They fall into the A+ category and will earn 7 Crore rupees in the year. The spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal has been demoted to Grade C for the year.

Indian vs Pakistan Cricket Salary Comparison

In comparison, the Indian Cricket team players are paid more than the Pakistan team. The wage gap is clearly visible as players falling in the lowest category of the Indian Cricket team contract earn substantially more than the elite earners of Pakistan. One main reason for the high wages is the funds allocated by their respective cricket boards.

BCCI is the richest cricket board in the world, and hence Indian players are paid more. The majority of BCCI revenue is earned via the IPL and other international matches which are hosted in the country.

Pakistan Cricket Board incurs heavy losses as very few matches of Pakistan are held in the country. Pakistan’s domestic franchise T20 league PSL draws less revenue compared to IPL.