The Indian Premier League (IPL) franchises announced the names of players they have retained and released for the 2021 season a few days ago.

oyal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) made headlines by releasing as many as 10 players into the auction pool. But they also retained their top stars like Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers, Yuzvendra Chahal, Washington Sundar, etc.

The contract extensions meant that the players were given an additional year on their current deals, for the prices on which they were bought. As per a report in InsideSport, De Villiers, hence, went on to become the first overseas player in the history of the league to top INR 100 crore in earnings in the T20 league.

The likes of MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma had already breached the Rs. 100 cr mark while Raina became the fourth one to do so by fetching a new contract from Chennai Super Kings for IPL Season 14.

De Villiers' current contract sees him fetch Rs 11 crore for a season. The sum was enough for him to get into the 100 crore club alongside Dhoni, Kohli, Rohit and Raina.

With the IPL 2021 contract, De Villiers has now earned a total of INR 102.5 crore from his contracts from the franchises in the T20 league.

De Villiers is widely considered as one of the finest batsmen in the world when it comes to the shortest format. Despite retiring from international cricket in May 2018, De Villiers has remained one of the finest batters in the world in the T20 format.

Last season, the South African had scored 454 runs for RCB at an average of 45.40 and a strike-rate of 158.74. Even a season before, Mr. 360 had aggregated 442 runs in just 13 matches for the franchise.

Overall, De Villiers has scored 4849 runs in the T20 league from 169 matches at an average of 40.40.

De Villiers has represented a total of two franchises in the league, with the first being Delhi Daredevils.

The Proteas stalwart has been a part of the IPL since the inaugural season in 2008.

His first deal in the league was worth a little more than 1 crore. He joined RCB in 2011 after being purchased for a little over Rs 5 crore and has since been with them.