Pakistan's international cricketers are among the worst paid in the world, figures collected by ESPNcricinfo reveal.

It notes that although Pakistan's top tier cricketers make as much as those of other nations with comparable revenues, they manage to do this only by playing more matches in the year since their basic retainers are much lower.

Sarfraz Ahmed, for example makes $300,000 in a year but is likely to lose much more in monetary terms if he suffers an injury, compared to counterparts Kane Williamson, Jason Holder and Angelo Mathews.

This is despite the fact that the Pakistan Cricket Board's (PCB) revenues are comparable to those of New Zealand, West Indies and Sri Lanka's boards, the report noted.

Surprisingly, the retainers of top tier players for the Champions Trophy winners are less than those of Ireland, which has yet to play a Test match.

One of the reasons for this disparity is the lack of a players' association in the country, while most other cricketing nations now have them.

Interestingly, Indian players too are facing this particular disadvantage when negotiating with their cricket board, since they too lack a player's association like their neighbours.

The cricket boards of the two countries, however, justify the move saying that they contract more players than most other boards in the world — a claim which the ESPNcricinfo finds largely correct. This brings slightly greater equality in the earnings between top tier and prospective international players.

Yet, it pays to be the coach of a sub-continental team. Pakistan's Mickey Arthur, for example earns three times more than a Pakistani player in the top category and Indian coach Ravi Shastri makes a whopping $1.17m, which is higher than Indian skipper Virat Kohli's earnings from contracts and match fees.

Australia's Steven Smith is the highest paid cricketer in the world with annual earning from contracts and match fees standing at $1.47m, while England's Joe Root makes $1.38m and Kohli earns $1m.

Compared to player earnings in other sports, however, cricketers are at a clear disadvantage monetarily as the highest earners in football, Formula One, basketball, golf and tennis all make astronomically more money than the highest paid cricketers.