Highest earning cricketers

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni 

Earnings: $10 million

Primary Club Team: Chennai Super Kings

National Team: India

Major Sponsors: Reebok, GE Money, Pepsi 

M.S. Dhoni's $8 million of endorsement income over the last year is more than baseball's Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols and Ryan Howard, combined.

2. Sachin Tendulkar 

Earnings: $8 million

Primary Club Team: Mumbai Indians

National Team: India

Major Sponsors: Adidas, Canon, Royal Bank of Scotland 

Tendulkar, widely considered one of the greatest batsman in cricket history, is one of five IPL cricketers with "icon" status, meaning he's exempt from the league's player auction and instead automatically receives a paycheck 15% larger than his highest paid Mumbai teammate.

3. Yuvraj Singh 

Earnings: $5.5 million

Primary Club Team: Kings XI Punjab

National Team: India

Major Sponsors: Fiat, Reebok, Microsoft 

Singh earned $4 million over the last 12 months from endorsements and other commercial ventures off the field, including providing a voice in the animated film Jumbo, his Bollywood debut.

4. Rahul Dravid 

Earnings: $5 million

Primary Club Team: Royal Challengers Bangalore 

National Team: India

Major Sponsors: Castrol, Reebok

A former International Cricket Council Player of the Year, Dravid earns slightly over $1 million annually from Bangalore as one of the IPL's five icon players.

5. Andrew Flintoff 

Earnings: $4 million

Primary Club Team: Chennai Super Kings 

National Team: England

Major Sponsors: Puma, Volkswagen, Barclays 

Flintoff will retire from five-day national team competition next month and is doing his best to go out on top: In July he bowled England to its first Test victory in 75 years over Australia at Lord's, cricket's most storied venue.

6. (Tie) Sourav Ganguly 

Earnings: $3.5 million

Primary Club Team: Kolkata Knight Riders

National Team: India*

Major Sponsors: Puma, Pepsi

Ganguly, captain of the IPL's Knight Riders, ranks fourth all-time in runs on India's national team, a squad he used to also captain. 

*Retired from national team play in 2008.

6. (Tie) Ricky Ponting 

Earnings: $3.5 million

Primary Club Team: Kolkata Knight Riders*

National Team: Australia

Major Sponsors: Valvoline, KFC, Adidas

Ponting has slowly shed his bad boy image to become one of Australia's most marketable athletes, earning more than $2 million in commercial endorsements over the last 12 months. 

*Did not play in the IPL in 2009.

8. (Tie) Brett Lee 

Earnings: $3 million

Primary Club Team: Kings XI Punjab

National Team: Australia

Major Sponsors: Gatorade, Volkswagen

One of the fastest bowlers in cricket history, Lee was once clocked at 99.9 miles per hour on the radar gun, just shy of Pakistan's Shoaib Akhtar's record of 100 mph.

8. (Tie) Kevin Pietersen 

Earnings: $3 million

Primary Club Team: Royal Challengers Bangalore 

National Team: England

Major Sponsors: Red Bull, Vodafone, Adidas

Bangalore purchased the rights to Pietersen at auction for a record $1.55 million annual salary--a sum that's tied with Chennai's Flintoff as the highest auction price in the IPL's two year history.

10. Michael Clarke 

Earnings: $2.5 million

Primary Club Team: New South Wales Blues*

National Team: Australia

Major Sponsors: Gillette, Slazenger

Clarke is the highest-profile cricketer who has yet to join the IPL, instead preferring to leave money on the table and play club matches in his native Australia. 

*Australian first-class cricket team, also known as RTA SpeedBlitz Blues.