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Abhinav Bindra

Meera Mohanty
Purvita Chatterjee

New Delhi/Mumbai, Aug. 11 Abhinav Bindra, a World Champion with multiple medals at the Commonwealth Games, a child prodigy with many records to his name, has only now found his moment of glory.

“We needed a hero, someone who captures the heart and imagination of the people. And now we have our hero,” says Ms Latika Khaneja of Collage Sports Management.

The individual gold, that sports fans had almost given up on, will probably make Indian companies little more willing to associate themselves with the young athletes of the next Olympic or Commonwealth Games. “This victory has lit the spark for supporters and sponsors who will now get excited and look at sports beyond cricket. It now depends on Bindra, on whether he chooses to be extremely selective like Viswanathan Anand or be flamboyant like M.S. Dhoni. India has been a single sport nation unlike other countries where there are multiple sports and fan following. But today Indians are changing psychologically and a victory like this has come at the right time for India,” says Mr Shailendra Singh, Joint Managing Director, Percept Holdings.

“Indians are emotionally getting smarter and its going to be all about how you give character to those emotions. For all you know Bindra may emerge a bigger celebrity than Indian cricketers such as Tendulkar,” says Mr Suvrangsu Mukherjee, Managing Director, Total Sports Asia. “At the same time, the media has a critical role to play and as long as Bindra winning the gold is the talking point and the media keeps the resonance on, he is bound to get endorsements,” he adds.

Mr Mahesh Ranka, GM, Relay Worldwide, is betting on the same. However, he adds, “At the same time it is cricket and not shooting which has a substantial following.” On a commercial basis, cricket is ahead of other sports 10-1, and on stage of development 10-4, but there is no shortage of talent in other sports,” says Mr Sundar Raman of the Indian Premier League.

Bindra’s feat today betters the silver medal win by Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore in Athens four years ago. Ms Khaneja, who helped Rathore sign deals with Hero Honda, Sahara and Coca-Cola, says “It’s difficult to sell anything these days, even Sachin is difficult to sell. It’s not a reward that you are giving away; you have to match values and see if the two brands, the sportsperson and the company, can be brought together.” Indian Olympians have not been embraced by the cola and FMCG makers who have loyally stuck to Bollywood and cricket; what’s come the way of our former Olympians is endorsements of PSU companies and packaged coconut water.

Ms Ruchika Batra, GM, Corporate Communications, Samsung, the official Indian team sponsor which plans to stay associated with the Games till 2016, says its Olympic quiz event was proof enough of the knowledge and interest in the Games that was waiting to be tapped. However, shooting, wrestling or archery don’t really compare with F1, tennis or soccer in marketability. Ms Khaneja sees Bindra finding endorsement as a national achiever rather than for the game of shooting per se. Pointing out that shooting is a niche sport, Ms Vinita Bangard, COO, Percept Talent Management, says its not any different internationally. If cricket is religion in India, basketball and baseball are the driving passions of Americans and soccer weekends are what European sport stars live for despite their Olympic standings.

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