Are Indian Cricketers over paid?

I often get this doubt (atleast when Indian's lose crunch matches :) ) on whether Govt of India is giving too much to Indian Cricketers?

Pouring cash rewards, flats / house / plot etc., for winning a series is acceptable if it is done by BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India). But if the same thing is being followed by Govt of India then I guess there is some problem.

Cricket has a huge following within India than anyother sports (it's my personal opinion). So media coverage is more on that, so are the advertisers. It's business for them so they invest their time and money on something where they get more ROI. To me its perfectly fine and I don't see any issues with that.

But the only problem is Govt shouldn't do the same thing by announcing awards / prizes to cricketers alone! For a government it should be like anyother sports in India. There are lots of people who have shined well in 'atheletics', 'Table Tennis', 'Chess', ' Hockey' etc., in India. Are everybody treated the same way?

One good thing which I saw in the recent past is Tamil nadu Cheif Minister (Dr. Karunanidhi) treated all Tamil Nadu sports as equal and announced prize money to almost every achiever according to the contribution they have made to their respective sport. Way to go!

Prize money won by Indian Cricketers for winning Twenty20 Championship

Extract from cricket buzz

1) The Indian team received a prize money worth $490,000 for winning the Twenty20 World Cup.

2) The BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) announced a prize money of $3 million (Rs 12 crore) for the team. Each member got a check of Rs 80 lakhs.

3) A special cash reward of Rs 1 crore given to Yuvraj Singh for his 6 sixes in an over.

4) The support staff including the Manager, Bowling Coach, Fielding Coach and Physio got Rs 15 lakhs each.

5) Lalit Modi, Vice President of BCCI gifted a Porsche car to Yuvraj Singh on his personal capacity.

6) Neosport presented a Mercedes car to R P Singh for excellent bowling performance in the tournament.

7) Sahara India has announced to give flats (worth Rs 25 lakhs = $62,500) to each cricketer.

8) The Delhi government has decided to offer free Air services to all members of Team India for 5 years.

9) Air India and Indian Airlines announced out-of-turn promotion for some cricketers including Dhoni, Uthappa, Gambhir and Harbhajan Singh. They will also get a steep hike in their salary.

10) The Haryana government has given Rs 21 lakhs to Joginder Singh.

11) The Karnataka government has announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakhs each for player Robin Uthappa and bowling coach Venkatesh Prasad.

12) Maharashtra government has announced a reward of Rs. 10 lakhs each for Ajit Agarkar and Rohit Sharma.

13) Virender Sewhag and Gautam Gambhir will receive Rs 5 lakhs each from the Delhi government.

14) The Kerala government has announced a cash reward of Rs 5 lakhs for S Sreesanth.

15) The Baroda Cricket Association has handed over checks worth Rs 11 lakhs each to Pathan brothers - Irfan Pathan and Yusuf Pathan. In addition, they also received Rs 5 lakhs each from the Gujarat government.

16) RP Singh became the first recepient of the Manyavar Kanshiramji International Sports Award that carries a reward of Rs 10 lakhs.

17) The Jharkhand Government has bestowed the first "Jharkhand Ratna" award on Mahendra Singh Dhoni. According to the Chief Minister of the state, Dhoni will get a "surprise gift" on arrival.

18) The Union government has decided to give Z+ Security cover to M S Dhoni. Although it's not an award, only few eminent and VVIP persons in the country receive such security cover.

Related Article : HindustanTimes