'Clarke beats Ponting, becomes Oz's million dollar man'

Michael Clarke has replaced his skipper Ricky Ponting as the highest paid cricketer in the Australian team according to an estimate, which puts his salary to USD 1.01 million.The calculations are based on 12 months of estimated earnings from December 1, 2007.In 2007, Ponting had emerged as the highest paid cricketer.But it was only Clarke's workload that steered him ahead of Ponting, who is closely chasing him at USD 992,280 for the year. Clarke featured in 36 out of 37 games Australia played.Only Mike Hussey played all the games, and USD 329,970 in match fees saw his payday get past Brett Lee, a man believed to be the number two rank but not so due to less number of matches.According to 'Daily Telegraph', base salaries of the top 25 contracted Australian cricketers start at USD 160,000 and end with Ponting at a sum believed to be USD 800,000."The base salaries drop at intervals of approximately USD 50,000 according to rankings, and men who play in all forms of the game occupy the top tier," the newspaper said."On top of this, players are paid match fees that can boost their wage by more than USD 300,000 a year if they play the majority of Tests, ODIs and Twenty20 games. A Test is worth USD 12,750 and 50/20-over cricket pays USD 5100 -- and both attract overseas loading."According to the report, most top Aussie batsmen pocket somewhere between USD 600 and USD 700 a run. Because of his workload, Hussey represents best value, costing CA only USD 619 for every run.