It is a well-known fact that Cricket began as a sport for the royals in England, where the rich and privileged often engaged in a game of ‘bat and ball’ during the English summer. However, as it started to spread, it wasn’t always the same royal sport everywhere around the world. While initially in India, it was mainly the prince and royalty who could afford to play the game, it wasn’t just them. It soon became a humble sport that reached the masses.
Cricket remained a mass-level sport in India for the longest time, throughout India’s independence and many other significant events. It was always an extremely beloved sport in the country, but players seldom made lucrative sums of money from playing the sport.
Endorsements weren’t the norm back in the 1970s and 1980s. While there was the odd ad of Farookh Engineer endorsing Brylcream, or Sunil Gavaskar endorsing Dinesh Suitings, or Kapil Dev endorsing Boost, endorsements of brands were still too scarce and too few.
To build a personal brand globally, a person needs three things: The name, the work, and the nature of that person. Irrespective of that person’s presence, if his/her name is spoken about in different circles, then that person has made a name for himself/herself. The work always has to be of prime importance.
As long as someone is performing well in their sector, people will keep talking about them. In cricket, most cricketers face the lows the game brings, but very few witness the highs. Consistent good performances ensure that they remain in popular consciousness, which provides them with the perfect platform to build a brand.
The 1983 World Cup win ushered in a new era in Indian cricket, but it was nowhere near enough to make it a global powerhouse. That happened from the early 2000s, after India was particularly bad in the 1990s. Although the 90s weren’t the greatest time for Indian cricket, it gave India its greatest ever cricketer – Sachin Tendulkar.
Sachin Tendulkar is widely considered by many cricket fans as the first truly global icon from India. While Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar had attained global acclaim before him, Sachin Tendulkar brought something new to Indian cricket in terms of contracts and endorsements.
In 2001, long before endorsements and contracts were a normal thing for cricketers, and when they relied mostly on the BCCI central contract list, Sachin Tendulkar signed a deal with WorldTel and its founder, Mark Mascarenhas. As per that deal, Sachin Tendulkar was promised a ‘Minimum Guarantee’ of INR 100 crores in 5 years. It was a revolutionary deal in Indian cricket at that time.
Sachin Tendulkar’s brand value had increased to such an unprecedented level that Mark Mascarenhas made a deal with him, guaranteeing INR 100 crores in 5 years. This, many consider, to be the pioneering deal that paved the way for many more endorsement deals and contracts to happen in the future.
Soon enough, India won the Natwest Trophy in England in 2002, followed by a 1-1 draw in the Test series in England. India also reached the final of the 2003 ODI World Cup and drew the Border-Gavaskar series in Australia 1-1.
It was fair to say that India’s cricketing performance was on the rise, and so were endorsement deals. Pepsi famously signed a multi-year deal with India during the 2003 ODI World Cup, with Sourav Ganguly helming as the face of the brand from the Indian cricket team.
Rahul Dravid became one of the brand ambassadors of Gillette, alongside International stars such as Roger Federer, Tiger Woods, and Thierry Henry. Several cricketers thereafter, such as Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, etc., also became the face of many brands. Brand endorsements had truly picked up in Indian cricket.
Just when brand endorsements were picking up in India, something else happened that gave India and Indian cricket a massive boost – The IPL.
With the IPL, Indian cricketers who were already performing well internationally found another huge platform to appeal to the masses. This is what saw the rise of players such as MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, etc.
While MS Dhoni had already bagged several endorsement deals by 2006 (he debuted in 2004), his association with Chennai Super Kings in the IPL changed the way people view him. He saw unprecedented success with CSK, winning 5 titles and reaching 5 more finals in 16 years of its existence. This allowed him to build a brand for himself, one that appealed to the entire nation.
MS Dhoni’s ‘Helicopter Shot’ became a landmark shot in cricket. His flash-like hands behind the stumps and his cool demeanor during tense moments that earned him the nickname ‘Captain Cool’ were all traits that served his image very well.
All of these, alongside his association with CSK, made him the face of several brands. From Aircel, TVS Motors, Orient Electric, and Pepsico, to India Cements, Mastercard, SBI, Gulf Oil, and Lays, among others, MS Dhoni has endorsed countless brands. With a cool and calm demeanor on the field, to a smiling, kind, and diplomatically sharp personality off the field, MS Dhoni has won the hearts of millions. This automatically makes a brand worth investing in.
After MS Dhoni, if there is one personality who has taken Indian cricket to a sky-high level, it’s Virat Kohli. Virat Kohli burst into Indian cricket with a personality opposite to that of MS Dhoni.
He is aggressive right off the bat, he is always on-your-face, he has a fiery and feisty temperament, one that he carries quite elegantly and with poise on the field, and he carries his heart on his sleeve. Virat Kohli individually built his brand, but in a way that resonated with a billion Indian fans.
Virat Kohli was ushered into the Indian cricket setup in 2008 after India won the Under-19 World Cup under his captaincy. It was the ODIs that were the big thing back then, and Kohli made sure he scored brilliantly and consistently in the format.
Alongside that, his bond and stint with the Royal Challengers were building. When he made his debut in Test matches, Virat Kohli scored an aggressive hundred in Australia during the poor 2011-12 Border-Gavaskar Trophy. He was India’s only centurion in that series.
Owing to his run machine mentality, his ability to score big in important matches and win India matches from incredibly tough situations, his leadership skills that saw India win Test series overseas, such as in Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, and others, and his never-say-die attitude, made him a superstar in Indian cricket.
Virat Kohli also has 270 million Instagram followers. He is a massive brand in himself. Therefore, it was a no-brainer for big International brands to get behind someone like Virat Kohli.
His biggest associations have been with MRF Tyres, Puma, Audi, Myntra, Manyavar, Kajaria Tyres, etc. Such is his brand power that he recently rejected an INR 300 crore offer from Puma to invest in an Indian startup called Agilitas. Agilitas is headed by Abhishek Ganguly, the ex-MD of Puma. Virat Kohli aims to take his brand One8 truly global with his association with Agilitas. He wishes to open One8 stores outside of India in England and the US.
Kohli’s brand power is second to none in Indian cricket. But he isn’t the only Indian cricketer with such majestic brand power. Rohit Sharma is another big name when it comes to being the poster boy for many brands.
However, in the modern age of cricket, with the advent and rise of T20 cricket, several other Indian cricketers are endorsing huge brands. Shubman Gill, Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and many others are also well-known faces. Several brands are using them to market their products.
Every cricketer is meticulous about the message they put out and the image they present to the public while endorsing a product. Every online presence they make is repeatedly vetted by highly expensive PRs, and they carefully tread every media question to maintain their image in the public eye.
This is how cricketers build personal brands and maintain them. It is a lesson, not only in marketing, but also in how brand value works and what it takes to be steady at it.
As the IPL grows and Indian cricket reaches indomitable heights, more and more Indian cricketers are expected to build personal brands and maintain it in future.
Are You Planning to Join: MBA in sports management program in india