Preparations for the IPL 2022 have already started with the 8 franchises announcing their retentions. The two new teams – Lucknow and Ahmedabad – will soon announce their top three picks as all the 10 teams gear up for the mega-auction, to be held on February 12 and 13.
Another aspect which the board has been pondering over is the commentators and their salaries for the upcoming season. The commentators are responsible for analyzing the game in a simpler way capable of being understood by the audience, and also keeping them updated with the happenings during the game. It’s a high-profile and important job in the richest, biggest cricket league in the world. Hence, they are paid handsomely.
In the past few years, the broadcasters have also added regional languages such as Telugu, and Tamil apart from English and Hindi. We can look at the salaries of the commentators from IPL 2021, and expected similar or more for the upcoming tournament.
IPL has divided its category of commentators into 3 premier panels which are the English panel, Hindi panel, and Dugout.
| Panel | Salary Range |
| English Panel | $250,000 to $500,000 |
| Hindi Panel | $80,000 to $350,000 |
| Dugout Panel | $500,000 to $700,000 |
The range of salary being offered varies as per different medium of language.
In the English panel, highly experienced commentators such as Harsha Bhogle and Sunil Gavaskar are among the top earners. Notably, Sanjay Mangrekar wasn’t retained by the BCCI for last season’s
English Panel IPL Commentators Salary
| Commentators | Salary | Country |
| Harsha Bhogle | $500,000 | India |
| Ian Bishop | $500,000 | West Indies |
| Michael Slater | $500,000 | Australia |
| Sunil Gavaskar | $500,000 | India |
| Kevin Pietersen | $500,000 | England |
| Mark Nicholas | $500,000 | England |
| Kumar Sangakkara | $500,000 | Sri Lanka |
| Simon Doull | $350,000 | New Zealand |
| Danny Morrison | $350,000 | New Zealand |
| Deep Dasgupta | $250,000 | India |
| Rohan Gavaskar | $250,000 | India |
| Pommie Mbangwa | $250,000 | Zimbabwe |
| Darren Ganga | $250,000 | West Indies |
| L Sivaramakrishnan | $250,000 | India |
| Anjum Chopra | $250,000 | India |
| Lisa Sthalekar | $250,000 | Australia |
| JP Duminy | $250,000 | South Africa |
| Murali Kartik | $250,000 | India |
Known for his creative style with the mic, former India opener Aakash Chopra was the highest earner in the Hindi panel.
Hindi Panel IPL Commentators Salary
| Commentator | Salary |
| Aakash Chopra | $350,000 |
| Irfan Pathan | $200,000 |
| Gautam Gambhir | $200,000 |
| Ashish Nehra | $200,000 |
| Ajit Agarkar | $200,000 |
| Kiran More | $200,000 |
| Sanjay Banger | $80,000 |
| Nikhil Chopra | $80,000 |
| Sandeep Patil | $80,000 |
IPL didn’t release the salary of the dugout commentators. The dugout studio is in Mumbai. They are paid between $500,000 and $700,000.
These were the commentators seen in the Dugout last season:
- Late Dean Jones
- Graeme Swann
- Scott Styris
- Brian Lara
- Brett Lee
- Brian Lara
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