Rediff

Mohali, May 2: Speedster Brett Lee returned home as the richest Australian cricketer, taking home a whopping $80,000 per scalp for his four wickets from as many games in the cash-rich Indian Premier League.

The paceman was bought for $900,000 at the IPL auction and earned more than $320,000 for his brief stint with Kings XI Punjab.

Captain Ricky Ponting, who went for a relatively modest $400,000 to the Kolkata Knight Riders at the auction in February, emerges the highest-paid Australian batsman when earnings are worked out on a rupees-per-runs-scored basis.

Ponting earned $3663 for every run, or $142,000 for the four games he played.

The World Cup-winning captain, who made two golden ducks and scored just 39 runs for the tournament, admitted he would have liked to have scored more runs and his impact "wasn't that great", according to The Australian.

Lee and Ponting were among the six players, who returned to Australia to prepare for the Caribbean tour where they will earn almost $13,000 a Test and $5000 a one-day international.

But despite the money part, Ponting was concerned that the dollars players are earning in the IPL could drift them away from their home teams.

"There's a real danger there that international players might just see the glitz and glamour of this event and not want to play international cricket any more, which I don't think would be great for the game," Ponting was quoted as saying by The Australian.

All-rounder Andrew Symonds was next in line, as his purse was heavier by $500,000 after playing just four appearances with the Deccan Chargers of Hyderabad.

Symonds, who had a controversy-free tour of the sub-continent unlike last year, pocketed $3000 for each of his 161 runs.

Each player is understood to have been paid on a pro-rata basis for the games played and received 10 per cent of that amount for each game they did not play.

Matthew Hayden ($134,000) and Michael Hussey ($125,000) both bring home more for two weeks' work than most Australians get for two years.

Simon Katich fetched only $200,000 at the auction and earned just under $60,000 for his efforts. The New South Wales captain only played two matches.