Which players have made the most money in IPL over 12 years?

A player in the IPL earns from many different sources.

Foremost, as we all know, team management bid for players at the auction every year. That's their primary source of earning.

In IPL 2019 auction, Jaydev Unadkat and Varun Chakaravarthy emerged as the costliest players of the season, each being sold at INR 8.4 crore to Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab respectively.

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(Courtesy: Twitter)

However, when looking at the list of most expensive players in IPL history, Unadkat and Varun don’t even come near to the top-guns.

King Kohli tops the chart of the most expensive IPL player. Royal Challengers Bangalore paid INR 17 Crore to retain him in 2018.

Next in the list is Yuvraj Singh, who was purchased by Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) in 2015 at a whopping INR 16 Crore.

Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni and (surprisingly) Rishabh Pant follows on the list of most expensive players in IPL history.

The players take this bidding amount home (with some cuts here and there).

In addition, each player signs a contract with BCCI. In accordance with the agreement, they are allotted a fixed amount from the board.

Also, the management of the IPL team that players belong to, per rule, has to pay the travel and daily allowance (TA/DA) each day. Previously that amount was INR 3,800. Last year, it was hiked to INR 5,000.

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These are just the fees and contractual allowances.

Aside from these, the players also earn money from advertisements. Unsurprisingly, the big and popular players like Dhoni, Maxwell, Kohli get paid higher for their appearance in ads vs. the less known faces.

This further adds to the fortune they make from the Indian Premier League.

• And oh, the IPL players also make money from awards and prizes. Man of the Match, most number of wickets, the highest number of catches, most number of runs and MORE. Also, the winning team has to split their prize amount with the players as well.

(Courtesy: Hindustan Times)

It is estimated, the average amount each player earns in IPL is INR 80,00,000.

(Even those sitting on the bench, they are paid in full! 45 days, INR 80 lakh -- not too shabby.)

With all these sources of income, it’s hard to conclude which player has made the most money over the 12-year course of Indian Premier League.

However, if I were to guess, I would definitely go with the names like MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, Suresh Raina, and Virat Kohli. All these players have been highly consistent in IPL appearance. They are very popular faces. And each team wish to have them on board.