Sachin Tendulkar endorses Pepsi, Adidas, ITC, Canon and eight other brands; Rahul Dravid pushes Pepsi, Sansui, Max New York Life, Bank of Baroda besides others; Sourav Ganguly lends his name to Puma, TCL, Chirag Computers, Sahara, Hero Honda.

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.

While Ganguly’s Pepsi contract has just ended after five years, most of the endorsements are usually signed for three-to-five year terms — but this is already changing. Ganguly’s TCL contract, for instance, is for a year.

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.

... contd.