Highest annual earnings for a cricket player (male, current year)

In 2025, Virat Kohli (India) earned a reported INR 250–300 crore ($38.4 m; £28.5 m), fuelled by an Indian Premier League (IPL) salary of INR 21 crore ($2.5 m; £1.8 m) with Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) contracts worth approximately INR 7 crore ($779,000; £577,000), and high-value brand-endorsement deals with the likes of Puma, HSBC India, MRF Tyres and Myntra.

The multi-format master batter heads an all-star cast of international cricketers, with the Australian quartet of Pat Cummins ($31.3 m; £23.2 m), Mitchell Starc ($30.5 m; £22.6 m), Steve Smith ($29 m; £21.5 m) and David Warner ($27.6 m; £20.5 m) filling the next four places, and Rohit Sharma (India; $27.2 m; £20.2 m), Jos Buttler (England; $26.7 m; £19.8 m), Trent Boult (New Zealand; $26.4 m; £19.6 m), Jasprit Bumrah (India; $26.1 m; £19.4 m) and Kane Williamson (New Zealand; $25.7 m; £19.1 million) completing the top 10.

Kohli (b. New Delhi, 5 November 1988), one of the finest players of his generation and idolized by Indian cricket supporters the world over, had scored 9,230 Test match, 14,797 One-Day International and 4,188 Twenty20 International runs – averaging over 45 runs per innings in all three international formats – as of 24 February 2026.