In most cases salary figures and contract details are not made available publicly the information in this article, culled from their contacts by our correspondents from around the globe, strives to be as accurate as is possible. That, you might say, is a modern truism of the game, but as the calendar is being fundamentally reshaped by domestic T20 leagues and the riches they offer players, the magnitude of that inequality should serve as a clear warning to the international game. What is crystal clear is that the richer cricket has become, the more inequality it has bred. And if anything, it will increase the disparity in earnings between top and bottom. Factoring all those in might shuffle the rankings, but that is likelier to happen at the top of the list. The pay figures in this piece do not include the various bonuses players are paid for wins and individual performances. Most boards (see below*) pay their players a share of their commercial rights, while others don't, or distribute them differently. The figures are based on international cricket, and do not take into account player earnings from T20 leagues, other domestic engagements or endorsements. The top Indian earners in international cricket are Virat Kohli, the captain, who pulled in approximately $1 million this year, and coach Ravi Shastri, whose annual salary of $1.17 million is comparable to that of any of the game's top players. The headline is that Steven Smith, the Australia captain, will earn US$1.469 million this year, while his Zimbabwean counterpart Graeme Cremer stands to earn $86,000. These are some of the key findings from figures collected by ESPNcricinfo in a survey of central contract salaries and match fees around the world. The highest-earning captain in international cricket in 2017 stands to make nearly 20 times as much as the lowest-earning the top cricketers in the world earn around US$1 million from playing international cricket the top Pakistani annual contract is worth less in monetary terms than the top Ireland one and coaching a subcontinent side, though bad for job security, is great for the bank balance. Osman Samiuddin, Nagraj Gollapudi, Girish TS, Srinath Sripath | October 17, 2017