MUMBAI: Two-time Indian Premier League champions Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), co-owned by Bollywood actors Shahrukh Khan and Juhi Chawla along with her businessman husband Jay Mehta, paid the highest player salaries on average in 2018 in the IPL, according to the ‘Global Sports Salaries’ (GSSS) annual survey by UK-based Sports Intelligence.
Amongst IPL teams, KKR topped the list with an annual average weekly pay of Rs. 7.1 million, which could be attributed to their expensive buys in the IPL 2018 mega auction, resulting in having 18 players in the squad. The figure comes up to Rs. 364.5 million per year, which is remarkable considering that the IPL lasts six weeks and teams play between 14-17 matches in one season.
As a result, KKR has been ranked 52 this year as compared to 68 in 2017 when it comes to all teams across the globe in sporting leagues in terms of player salaries. It is above the likes of Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur and Atlanta Hawks of the NBA, which has been named as the richest sports league in the world in the same survey.
In second place is Kings XI Punjab, which has globally jumped 71 places to 55th. Punjab’s aggressive strategy in the auction last year made them pay Rs. 6.83 million in average player salaries per week. The Reliance-owned Mumbai Indians surprisingly come third in the list, while defending champions Chennai Super Kings’ strategy of packing their squad with backups makes them the lowest ranked in this regard.
The rest of the list is as follows in terms of average player salaries weekly and annually
Rank Team Average player pay (weekly) Average player pay (annually)
3 Mumbai Indians Rs. 6.79 million Rs. 353.2 million
4 Rajasthan Royals Rs. 6.78 million Rs. 353 million
5 Sunrisers Hyderabad Rs. 6.66 million Rs. 347 million
6 Delhi Daredevils Rs. 6.53 million Rs. 340 million
7 Royal Challengers Bangalore Rs. 6.52 million Rs. 339 million
8 Chennai Super Kings Rs. 6.26 million Rs. 325.8 million
The closeness in the gap amongst the seven teams besides KKR also has to do with the fact that the IPL bagged its highest valued 10-year global media rights deal earlier this year, for which Star India had paid a whopping Rs. 163.48 billion. The amount was distributed equally with the ten franchises, which ensured that ALL the teams were profitable for the first time in 11 years of the competition.
The IPL has been ranked the second richest sports league in the world after the NBA in terms of player salaries. Total salaries provided by the league stood at Rs. 6 billion as of 2018.
