Ad gag rattles business: ‘populist, bad in law’

In other words, the BCCI strictures today will affect most of the top cricketers who are rooting for more than two brands. Even Irfan Pathan who didn’t play a match in the World Cup endorses at least six brands, including Pepsi, Reebok, Tata Indicom, Hero Honda.

There is huge money riding on the senior cricketers — and on Yuvraj Singh and M S Dhoni too — so carrying out the stringent norms on the ground will be far from easy.

Consider this: Tendulkar, who signed up with Iconix, the talent management agency of Saatchi & Saatchi, last year for a deal expected to be around Rs 180 crore still commands Rs 5-7 crore per endorsement. Ganguly, who scripted an unexpected turnaround, isn’t doing too badly either, commanding a fee of Rs 1 crore.

The agents of the players described the move to cut contracts as “populist.” “The BCCI has definitely jumped the gun. It is a populist move and they have not thought through the legal implications as many players have multiple year contracts,” Anir Ban Blah, vice-president marketing, Globosport, which handles Zaheer Khan, told PTI. Khan has endorsements from Chevrolet, Reebok and Pepsi.

He said the BCCI would need to come out with clear-cut details as to who would compensate the player. “Legally, too, I think it is not tenable as it would tantamount to depriving somebody from earning through his primary source of income,” he said. When the BCCI pays a player Rs 2 crore for playing, but the same player gets many crores more than that through endorsements, it then becomes his primary source of income, he argued.

Echoing similar sentiment, Latika Khaneja of Collage Sports Management which handles Virender Sehwag, told PTI: “There have always been differences between the Board and cricketers and the Board has never wanted them to endorse any products.” BCCI wants to earn to lot of money through players’ performance, but whenever these cricketers have tried to earn, the Board has always disliked it, she added. Vinita Bangard, VP of Percept D’Mark, which manages Ganguly, puts it: “We are waiting to read the fineprint, but nothing can happen to existing contracts. It will be very difficult to get out of them now.”

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