India's cricket elite to earn bigger bucks

India's top male cricketers will be earning more than ever after the Board of Control for Cricket in India announced Wednesday the Annual Player Contracts for the 2016-17 season.

The annual retainers have been doubled, with Grade A players, such as Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni and Ravi Ashwin earning AUD$398k, while Grade B players will earn $199k and Grade C $99k.

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Match fees, from October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017, have also doubled to $30k per Test, $12k for ODIs and $6k for T20 Internationals.

Cheteshwar Pujara, newly crowned India's No.1 Test batsman, and world No.1 Test bowler Ravindra Jadeja have been elevated to a Category A contract, along with opening batsman Murali Vijay.

For India's best and most marketable players however, these figures are dwarfed by their main sources of revenue: endorsements and lucrative Indian Premier League contracts.

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Dhoni earns $2.5m from his IPL deal with Rising Pune Supergiants and a staggering $35m from endorsements, according to Forbes.

Kohli's IPL contract with Royal Challengers Bangalore is even more profitable, netting the India captain $2.99m.

The BCCI contract announcement comes off the back of Cricket Australia's historic five-year proposal that will see male and female players' pay packets significantly increase.

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The average annual retainer for international men is expected to hit $816k by the end of the next Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in 2021, while that figure could balloon to $1.45m when match fees, KFC Big Bash League contracts and performance bonuses are taken into account.

The average salary of international and domestic female players is set to jump by 125 per cent under the plan tabled by CA, with Commonwealth Bank Southern Stars players set to earn $179k.

Grade A: Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, Chesteshwar Pujara, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Murali Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane.

Grade B: Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Wriddhiman Saha, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuvraj Singh.

Grade C: Shikhar Dhawan, Ambati Rayudu, Amit Mishra, Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Karun Nair, Hardik Pandya, Ashish Nehra, Kedar Jadhav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Parthiv Patel, Jayant Yadav, Mandeep Singh, Dhawal Kulkarni, Shardul Thakur, Rishabh Pant.

Test Squads

India (for fourth Test): Virat Kohli (c), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravichandaran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Karun Nair, Jayant Yadav, Kuldeep Yadav, Abhinav Mukund, Mohammed Shami.

Australia: Steve Smith (c), David Warner (vc), Ashton Agar, Jackson Bird, Pat Cummins, Peter Handscomb, Josh Hazlewood, Usman Khawaja, Nathan Lyon, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Stephen O'Keefe, Matthew Renshaw, Marcus Stoinis, Mitchell Swepson, Matthew Wade

Australia's schedule in India

Feb 23-27, First Test, Pune – Australia won by 333 runs.

Mar 4-8, Second Test, Bengaluru – India won by 75 runs.

Mar 16-20, Third Test, Ranchi – match drawn.

Mar 25-29, Fourth Test, Dharamsala