Team India’s star batter Virat Kohli is currently the highest-paid cricketer in the world. However, he lags behind a female athlete in terms of payment in the list of Highest Paid Asian Sportspersons in 2023 who earns around $20 million more compared to the most loved Indian cricketer.
Naomi Osaka beats Virat Kohli in the list of Highest Paid Asian Sportspersons in 2023
Sportico released the Top 100 highest-paid athletes list for 2022. Only two Asian athletes were featured in the list which was dominated by US and European players.
While Virat Kohli ranks 61 on the list, Japanese tennis star Naomi Osaka ranks at the number 20 position in the list. She is also the top-ranked Asian athlete in the highest-paid athletes list by Sportico.
Kohli has collected $2.9 million in the form of salary from the Indian team and Royal Challengers Bangalore Franchise. He has received $31 million from endorsements taking his tally to a total of $33.9 million. He ranked 59 in the highest-paid athlete list in 2021 and has dropped down two positions in 2022.
On the other hand, Naomi Osaka has collected $1.2 million from prize money and $52 million from endorsements. This takes her total yearly earnings to $53.2 million.
Osaka is also the second-highest tennis player on the highest-paid sportspersons list. She ranked at the number 15 position in 2021 and dropped down 5 positions in the year 2022.
The Japanese tennis star has already won 4 grand slams at the age of just 25. She has won 2 US Open and 2 Australian Open till now in her short career. Her last grand slam victory came in 2021 when she defeated Jennifer Brady in the Australian Open.
Virat Kohli, who has a net worth of more than 1,000 crore, has shown signs of getting back to his prime form. He smashed a ton and was consistently amongst runs in the recently concluded IND vs WI test series.
He also performed exceedingly well in the IPL 2023 where he amassed 639 runs in 14 matches at an incredible average of 53.25. He slammed two centuries and six fifties in the cash-rich league.
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With the ICC ODI World Cup 2023 scheduled in the months of October-November, and the kind of form Virat Kohli is in, he might end up climbing a few positions in the Highest Paid Sportspersons list.