The only cricketer named in The Sunday Morning Herald's list of 20 top-earning Australian athletes aged 23 or under is the young all-rounder, Cooper Connolly. His name appeared on the list mostly on the back of his strong earnings for the last year.

 

A huge part of his 2026 earning spike came at the Indian Premier League auction after Punjab Kings signed him for INR 3 crore, which is worth a significant $470,000 and shot him up to the 20th position in the list.

 

Despite being without a central contract with Cricket Australia, Connolly has managed to forge a stable income stream through match fees and league agreements, having all three formats of the game under his belt as well as featuring in last year's Champions Trophy as the travelling reserve.

 

Outside of his national duties, he has found success in franchise cricket after he was the first international recruit for the San Francisco Unicorns in Major League Cricket and played an important role for the Perth Scorchers' Big Bash League triumph. The year 2025 saw him sign a new deal with Gray-Nicolls in June.

 

Also Read | Watch: PBKS Connolly Smashes 103m Six Off Rashid on IPL Debut vs GT

 

Top 20 Highest-Paid Australian Athletes Under 23

 

Rank	Name	Sport	Age	Earning Estimate (Min)	Earning Estimate (Max)
1	Josh Giddey	Basketball	23	$38M	$40M
2	Dyson Daniels	Basketball	22	$37M	$39M
3	Jett Lawrence	Motocross	22	$12M	$15M
4	Travis Bazzana	Baseball	23	$6.5M	$7M
5	Mary Fowler	Soccer	23	$3M	$3.5M
6	Johnny Furphy	Basketball	21	$3M	$3.5M
7	Alex Condon	Basketball	21	$3M	$3.5M
8	Tyrese Proctor	Basketball	21	$2M	$2.5M
9	Joseph Suaalii	Rugby Union	22	$2M	$2.2M
10	Elvis Smylie	Golf	23	$2M	$2.2M
11	Molly Picklum	Surfing	23	$2M	$2.1M
12	Nick Daicos	Australian Rules	23	$1.8M	$2M
13	Maya Joint	Tennis	19	$1.6M	$1.8M
14	Gout Gout	Athletics	18	$1.5M	$1.7M
15	Alessandro Circati	Soccer	22	$1.5M	$1.7M
16	Nestory Irankunda	Soccer	20	$1.5M	$1.7M
17	Jordan Bos	Soccer	23	$1.5M	$1.7M
18	Errol Gulden	Australian Rules	23	$1.2M	$1.3M
19	Olivia Gadecki	Tennis	23	$1.1M	$1.2M
20	Cooper Connolly	Cricket	22	$1M	$1.1M

 

Also Read | PBKS vs GT: Cooper Connolly Smashes Fifty on IPL Debut, Enters Elite List

 

How Was the List Finalized?

 

The process taken to finalize the list was straightforward and clear. In most sports a full season was required in terms of earning, and for this, the past year's earnings were used. This helped in gaining an approximate figure of the amount each athlete made.

 

In sports such as tennis and golf where a major source of the earnings come from winning prize money, using a full calendar year helps in gaining an exact figure for the amount an athlete has made, whereas for an NBA player their salary during 2025-26 was counted while the earnings during the 2024-25 season were accounted for the races involving horse racing.

 

Only athletes actively competing as professionals in the 2025 year are counted in the list. In this instance athletes that are aged 23 or less are considered in the final draft of the list to be published.

 

All of the earnings for athletes have been converted to Australian Dollars at the exchange rate prevalent at the time and for sportspersons where the actual salary and endorsements cannot be acquired, these were estimated based on in-depth research on athletes worldwide.

 

The fact that only one cricketer makes up the list; Connolly emphasizes how uncommon it is for a young player to achieve such enormous financial success in their sport at this early stage and how valuable T20 and global tours are for the emergence of young players.