From lakhs to crores: How salary of Indian cricket coach has seen a huge hike over the years

One of the beliefs in cricket is that a coach has a limited role to play as compared to football. However, when it comes to salary, the compensation that Indian coaches receive is anything but marginal.

First, some background. The salary of Indian coaches has always been a matter of curiosity, and more so after recent developments involving Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid, coaches of the Indian senior and under-19 teams, respectively. Shastri returned as the coach last July in controversial circumstances, after the exit of Anil Kumble, who said his relationship with Virat Kohli had grown untenable. Dravid was in the news when he refused to accept a Rs 50 lakh bonus after the under-19 team’s World Cup win. He felt all members of the squad — players and support staff — should receive the same amount. The Indian cricket board accepted his suggestion, and paid all squad members Rs 25 lakh each.

Now onto salaries. According to the BCCI website, Shastri was paid a little over Rs 1.5 crore (Rs 1,57,74,456) as professional fees for the period January 18 to April 17 this year. With bonuses and perks, this comes to about Rs 8 crore a year.

Dravid was paid Rs 2.43 crore for the period July to December 2017, bringing his annual package to about Rs 5 crore.

Money matters

In the swirl of the talk about compensation, ETPanache sought perspective on the evolution of the Indian coach’s salary. One of the findings was that most Indian coaches were remunerated handsomely — even before the IPL boom.

The money in Indian cricket in the 1990s may seem modest compared to now, but it was impressive for that time. The 1983 World Cup win and WorldTel’s pathbreaking deal with Sachin Tendulkar and the Indian cricket board in the mid-90s had already infused big money in the sport. This reflected on the coach’s payslip.

According to a reliable source, Madan Lal, the 1983 World Cup star who coached India in 1996-7, earned Rs 5 lakh a month. Kapil Dev, during his disastrous stint as the Indian coach from late 1999 to 2000, reportedly earned Rs 4 lakh per match and received a 35 per cent bonus at the end of the year. Dev and Lal did not comment when asked about their salaries.


Ravi Shastri
Rs 8 crore a year


Kapil Dev
Rs 5 lakh per match + bonus


Madan Lal
Rs 5 lakh a month


Gary Kirsten
Rs 2.5 crore a year


Greg Chappell
1.25 crore a year

Foreign elements

Many former Indian players and commentators do not like it when a foreigner is appointed as a coach for purportedly high amounts. But Indian coaches have been paid just as well. Shastri, for example, earns almost thrice as much as Gary Kirsten, who coached India to the 2011 World Cup win and reportedly earned Rs 2.5 crore a year. John Wright, who engineered a revival in Indian cricket along with Sourav Ganguly in the 2000-2005 period, earned Rs 1 crore per year for his services. The muchmaligned Greg Chappell received Rs 1.25 crore annually when he was the coach from 2005 to 2007.