The Hindu Business Line : Young cricketers set to bowl over advertisers

Mumbai, Nov. 10 Bowlers may get the chance to play on a stronger wicket now as far as sponsorship is concerned. India’s test series win against Australia after a long hiatus will change the pecking order of sponsorship deals, especially favouring young bowlers.

With a fast bowler like Ishant Sharma being nominated as the man of the series, the sponsorship pie is likely to get split between both batsmen and bowlers, with the younger lot who will now, for a change, get to enjoy the rewards for their performance.

Observes Mr Gaurav Seth, Business Head, VGC Sports, “The sponsorship pie will get divided while captain Dhoni will continue to attract some of the best deals since he has brought home the T-20 World Cup and is the face of winning India. But the younger players, who were so far ignored, will attract sponsorships, especially now with older players such as Ganguly and Kumble retiring.”

In fact, the man of the series, Ishant Sharma, is already a part of campaigns for companies such as Pepsi, Reliance Infocom, ITC’s personal care products and Exide. Mr Jeet Banerjee, Managing Director, Gameplan, feels that going forward it will be the younger players who will get noticed depending on whether they have a sustained performance in the game.

“It is a gradual process and even fast bowlers with time should be in position to get more endorsement than they are currently doing,” he said.

“There may be more brands which could fit in with the ‘controlled aggression’ of a fast bowler like Ishant Sharma,” observes Mr Suvrangsu Mukherjee, Managing Director, Total Sports Asia. Besides, an under leveraged player such as Gautam Gambhir is also expected to come into the ‘endorsement’-led limelight with his consistent performance.

As Mr Mukherjee adds: “Both Ishant Sharma and Gautam Gambhir have been underleveraged. In fact, Gambhir, in spite of his consistent performance, endorses just a single brand of Airtel today.” In fact, it is unlikely that this particular test series will go unnoticed by advertisers as it has created ‘multiple heroes’ due to its team effort. “This series has created multiple heroes and whoever has delivered will be noticed and picked up for endorsements. Besides, cricket players always have an edge over other sports and the game is viewed and played more frequently than the others, added Mr Seth.

At the same time, a single win in the test series is not going to overnight change the fortunes of a single cricketer. “While advertisers may have been looking at the series with interest, they certainly are not going to jump at it. One series is unlikely to change the valuation of a particular cricketer,” observes Mr Mahesh Ranka, General Manager, Relay Worldwide, a division of Starcom.

However, industry observers claim that the only cricketer whose valuations could have soared is the captain’s. As Mr Anirban Das Blah, Vice-President, Globosport, says “The only cricketer who could have benefited from this test series is the captain himself. Dhoni has lent his golden touch to the game and is today the number one icon of the game. Besides, brands are largely built on one-day cricket matches.”

Meanwhile, it will not be the end of the road for endorsements for the two retiring cricketers — Ganguly and Kumble. “Ganguly had his days while Kumble was never in the valuation game. However, if both continue to become commentators or coaches, there is a chance for them to get endorsements. As long as they remain in the public eye, it is unlikely that either of them will retire into the sunset,” added Mr Ranka.