'I'm just getting a liiiiiiittle bit more cash': Michael Clarke. Source: AP
- Michael Clarke's salary rises to $6 million
- Pay bump makes him Australia's best at-home sportsman
- Andrew Bogut, Casey Stoner, Mark Webber ahead of him
MICHAEL Clarke is the new $6 million man, propelling him into the upper echelon of Australia's big money sportsmen.
The national cricket captain is now ranked fifth amongst this country's best-paid athletes after the latest contract deal between Cricket Australia and Australian Cricketers' Association. He earns more than an entire NRL club roster.
Vice-captain Shane Watson and former skipper Ricky Ponting also sit in the top 10 of Australia's best sporting earners with total annual incomes of about $4.5 million each.
Clarke is now Australia's best rewarded stay-at-home sportsman, with all those above him based overseas.
Basketballer Andrew Bogut ($13 million) is in the United States, MotoGP rider Casey Stoner ($9.5 million) and Formula One driver Mark Webber ($9 million) operate out of Europe while motocross rider Chad Reed ($8 million) also lives in the US.
The new five-year memorandum of understanding signed yesterday reinforces cricket as our most attractive team sport.
The number of Cricket Australia contracted players may have been reduced from 25 to 17 but the minimum retainer increased from $160,000 to $230,000, with the leading players, Clarke and Watson, receiving retainers of about $2 million each.
On top of that Clarke will earn a $300,000 captain's bonus while match fees rose to $14,000 a Test, $5600 a one-day match and $4200 for a Twenty20 international.
Then there are tour fees and bonuses for winning which will take Clarke's cricket earnings well past $2.5 million.
And with the best players the accepted formula has always been take their cricket payments and double them for endorsements and other outside income to paint a real picture of how much they earn.
But Australia's stars' riches are dwarfed by India, where captain MS Dhoni was estimated by Forbes to earn $26.5 million a year and Sachin Tendulkar $18.6 million.
Yet the enormous wealth of India and its obsession with cricket has given Australians another golden pathway.
Clarke was paid $1 million for half a dozen games in the annual IPL Twenty20 extravaganza two months ago.
Anyone playing Test and one-day cricket regularly for Australia will be paid over $1 million, making David Warner the big winner.Contrast the millions Australia's cricketers can make today with the $300 a Test that Ian and Greg Chappell, Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh were paid when they defected to World Series Cricket in 1977.
And it was less than 20 years ago when Test captain Allan Border signed Australia's first $100,000 contract.
The top half of Australia's new contract list will earn more than the AFL's highest-paid player, Gary Ablett, who was offered $1.8 million last year to move from Geelong to Gold Coast. Rugby league pales in comparison to cricket, with Johnathan Thurston (Cowboys) the best-paid player on about $800,000.
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