Ross Taylor is to join the club of newly minted cricket millionaires.
Taylor is understood to have completed re-negotiations on his Indian Premier League contract last week and has moved, in New Zealand terms, into a salary stratosphere previously occupied only by Brendon McCullum.
The wicketkeeping allrounder was
signed by the Kolkata Knight Riders on a three-year deal worth US$700,000 per season. At the moment that equates to $1.174m due to the NZD's implosion against the greenback.
Taylor's deal is believed a two-year deal worth a similar amount.
Taylor was yesterday playing in the fourth ODI against the West Indies and declined the opportunity to comment. His manager, Christchurch-based Leanne McGoldrick, also could not be reached for comment.
However his franchise, Bangalore Royal Challengers, are expected to announce his contract extension and improved terms sometime in the next couple of weeks.
Taylor was one of the few bright lights for the struggling Royal Challengers in his brief stint with the franchise last year before he headed to England for the winter tour. In his four matches he compiled 149 runs at an average of 37.25 with the impressive strike-rate of 183.95. The 10 sixes he struck were second only to Rahul Dravid's total among his team-mates, though Dravid needed 14 innings to hit 11 balls over the ropes.
Given his free-scoring style and the fact Bangalore were criticised heavily as containing players more suited to test cricket, it is perhaps not surprising Taylor was so coveted.
If the speculation is correct then the 24-year-old has gone a long way to securing his future. He is also ranked in the top five on New Zealand Cricket's rankings that determine retainer payments.
That guarantees him at least $108,000 for the year until the rankings are reviewed in May. Allied to payments of $7325 per test; $3175 per ODI; and $2075 for a Twenty20 international, Taylor is living proof of NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan's assertion cricket is an extremely lucrative career path for promising athletes.
