With the “clash of interest” row peaking around skipper MS Dhoni’s business arrangement with friend-manager Arun Pandey, the shadowy world of player agents has come into sharp focus. Corporates branding products through cricketers tell you it is impossible to get to any player without going through his manager. So if Sachin Tendulkar is known to have entrusted blind faith in Vinod Naidu, Melroy D’Souza decides which brand will suit Sehwag’s explosive batting image and Bunty Sajdeh tells Virat Kohli how it’s ok to endorse a fairness cream. Deebashree Mohanty and Amit Chaudhury talk to these agents of change to open up a hitherto unknown world of power, liaisons and big money
Yuvi will never endorse a gutka brand. Virat Kohli will not do underwear ads. Cheteshwar Pujara won’t ever coax you to buy fairness creams. And Sachin Tendulkar will never feature in any commercial which does not carry a message for the youth.
Says whoIJ Say the respective cricket managers who manage liaison and endorsements for these celebrity players. High-profile clients from the corporate world tell you that these managers are an impregnable shield and no one can get to the star players directly without consent of these business agents.
From the client’s perspective, the waiting period before one gets to hear about the final deal can sometimes last an eternity. And if an agent is finicky on making the choices, then only God can help you.
“First and foremost, there has to be relationship building with these managers. If they are convinced that their player’s profile will match the brand, he is about to endorse, your job becomes simpler. Without their consent, things don’t budge. It is irritating but then we have to follow it as a bitter rule. There is no other way,” says Ankit Chawla of Revital, a brand that Yuvraj Singh and other cricketers endorse.
For Chawla, it was a Herculean task to convince his mother-manager Shabnam Singh to get him on board. “Shabnamji needs to be absolutely sure before she moves ahead with any endorsement deal. She gives her inputs which we have to take very seriously. A deal is not signed overnight. There are a lot of people involved. Advertising agencies are also roped in to suggest a makeover for the player if need be,” he adds.
Among the top players, Yuvraj is probably the only one who has changed more managers than cricket bats. The talented cricketer had a five-year contract with Percept D’mark which ended in October 2008 and then a two-year deal with sports management company Cornerstone from 2008 to 2011. Now, his mother has formally taken over his business profiling. She takes the call on all brand associations for him. A hard-nosed negotiator, she follows market trends closely and is very particular about which brand her son should endorse and how it should be completely in sync with his personality.
“Brand endorsements are a way to keep players in the spotlight all the time. It is one way to ensure their continued popularity. Of course, it hugely matters that the player performs on the field. If he is going through a lean patch, clients pin their hopes on cricket being a tricky game which can change any moment. So, endorsements happen nevertheless. With Yuvi, we did not want to sign up for anything just to make money. If you noticed, all advertisements featuring him have a strong message to them. There are many considerations and consultations before signing a deal. I am very careful that an appearance does not jeopardise his cricketing image,” Shabnam tells you. She is adamant that Yuvi should look good with the brand he endorses.
Ogilvy is her favourite. “Yuvi made a brilliant comeback into the endorsement market after the 2011 World Cup. He has a personality that can match many products and he is a natural charmer. He is also passionate about his work schedule and doesn’t throw attitude. An absolute good mix to work with,” Piyush Pandey, chairman of Ogilvy & Mather, says.
The dashing all-rounder was in the Rs5-crore signing bracket, equivalent to Dhoni and Tendulkar. He rose up by Rs2 crore after his performance in the 2011 World Cup. “There has been a 30 per cent growth in Yuvi’s market value and he is going stronger than ever. He may not be playing many matches for now, but that has not affected his endorsement value,” Singh adds. Today, however, his brand value falls in the Rs2 crore bracket.
About the conflict of interest controversy involving Dhoni and his managing company Rhiti Sports, Shabnam has nothing to say. “Every company has its own rules. We don’t interfere in each other’s businesses,” is all she is willing to say.
But when the talk is about performance-oriented brand endorsing, the Professional Management Group (PMG) makes sure that Virender Sehwag remains among the top brands — his dry run with the Indian team, notwithstanding. “How we pitch for a player depends on which sponsor we are approaching. like, if we are looking for a sponsor for Viru, the most obvious ones would be the sports brands who can sign him up as an ambassador. But lots of other opportunities also come up. For example, Viru is known for his powerful play so something like a cement brand — JK Cements — can have him as their brand endorse,” Melroy D’Souza, chief operating officer of PMG, tells you. He also tells you that the role of a manager is to try and understand the requirements of a player. A manager recommends to his player how he should mould his image in public eye, what he should do in terms of being media friendly and also tries to get brands to see value in the cricketer.
D’Souza has played university-level hockey and college-level cricket and football. He always wanted to pursue a career in sports. His USP is his association with PMG, India’s first sports management company launched way back in 1985 by cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar and advertising professional Sumedh Shah.
“Today, most cricketers know about the downsides of negative publicity. Still, if is crucial for us and our player, especially if he is a young and rising star, to educate him about brand endorsing,” D’Souza says.
For D’Souza, the most challenging part of his job is to manage the dates of a player.
“The most challenging job is to find time and space to make sure all commitments are fulfilled outside of the player’s hectic, year-round playing and travelling schedule,” he says, clarifying that “we don’t handle investment and finances. Most cricketers have their investment bankers to see to this aspect.”
D’Souza, 30, who handles Manoj Tiwary and Varun Aaron besides Sehwag, started his career with Nimbus Sports as a rookie in college. While he did odd jobs like identifying and jotting down details of shots from more than 1,000 tapes of old cricket matches, his only stimulus to deal with this monotony was its roundabout link to his biggest passion in life — sports. He always wanted to pursue a career in sports, so he joined PMG more than three years ago after quitting Tiger Sports Marketing as its country head.
D’Souza is not willing to discuss how the continued absence of Sehwag from Team India makes his work more difficult but fact is that at one time, this dashing opener was demanding as much as Tendulkar’s endorsement charges. However, from Rs1.5 crore to Rs3 crore, he has seen a downslide and now comes in the Rs1 crore to Rs2 crore bracket, endorsing four major brands, including Hero Honda, Kingfisher and JK Cement, besides a few small ones. Pepsi dropped him after Coca-Cola became Delhi Daredevils’ sponsor and pasted his photos all over India.
While D’Souza may be busy strategising the future course of branding for Sehwag, Vinod Naidu is doing well in his golden cocoon. After all, master blaster Sachin Tendulkar, with whom Naidu has shared a 15-year relationship as his business manager, is too big an icon for corporates to not come running.
World Sports Group’s Naidu tells you that though with the changed format of the game, brand demands have changed too, the player-manager relationship remains the same. “Sachin is the best player to handle. He knows what is good for him and he takes a keen interest in following market trends. He is a very media savvy person, which is a huge plus for us,” Naidu says. In his long relationship, he has ensured that Sachin never really falls below his Rs3-5 crore endorsement bracket.
“Brand Sachin needs no promotion. His huge fan following and charisma do the trick for him off field too. But Sachin is a man of principles so we have to be careful about what brand he is endorsing.
Whether he performs on field or is approaching a new record, there is always be a beeline of top corporate clients for him. He doesn't like signing up for brands which are not good for society. He is very conscious of his image,” Naidu tells you.
Naidu, is so overly driven to keep himself out of limelight that it is almost as difficult to get him to talk as it is to get the master blaster himself for an interview. Naidu travels extensively to get the right deals for Tendulkar and also manages Cheteshwar Pujara who, he says, is too shy a person to endorse something like a fairness cream.
The Naidu-Tendulkar association is the longest player-agent relationship in India. This is despite the fact that Naidu didn’t have any educational training to represent a player. It was his love for sports that pushed him to learn the trade on job.
After graduating in commerce from St Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore, he joined Ogilvy One Worldwide, which is a direct marketing arm of famous Ogilvy & Mather. In a 1998 media event, he met Mark Mascarenhas, former head of WorldTel who had acquired the rights to manage Sachin Tendulkar in 1996. He asked him for an opportunity to work in the sports business and duly got the chance. From thereon, he never looked back. At that time, apart from Sachin Tendulkar, Mascarenhas’ portfolio included Sourav Ganguly, Robin Singh and Venkatesh Prasad as well and Naidu was the part of the team managing their interests. Mascarenhas died in an unfortunate accident.
Over the years, Naidu’s bonding with Tendulkar became so strong that when this agent moved to Saatchi & Saatchi’s celebrity management firm Iconix in 2006, Sachin moved along with him. But the relationship with Iconix didn’t work and within three months, both of them moved to World Sport Group.
Naidu is known to be a very particular about how Tendulkar should be portrayed in ads. So, when Coca-Cola approached Sachin in 2011, Naidu would have nothing but a “mature icon” image to be projected and not as a typical cola endorser. The resultIJ The master blaster became the happiness ambassador of the company and participated actively in Coca-Cola’s corporate social activities.
Under Naidu, Tendulkar has been the country's highest-paid sportsman for two decades. At present, he is the face of about 17 brands and earns between Rs 5-7 crore per brand annually.
However, many of his endorsement contracts are set to expire between now and 2014. According to media reports, the downslide has already started. Coca-Cola, whose Happiness Ambassador Sachin has been since 2011, will not be renewing the contract. Brands like the ITC, Adidas and Aviva have also taken his ads off air and Canon and Jyothi labs have not renewed their contracts. Tendulkar’s management company doesn’t want to comment on this.
It is not only Naidu who is particular about Sachin getting dignified and plumb assignments. Even celebrity manager Bunty Sajdeh of Corenerstone ltd is finicky about the brands his client Virat Kohli endorses. Sajdeh is the man who convinced Kohli to sign up for HUl’s men’s Fair & lovely cream. Not doing an underwear ad “is Virat’s strict personal choice,” he concedes laughingly. But to make him sign up for the Fair & lovely men’s cream, Sajdeh had to use all his persuasive powers. What brought a hesitant Virat on board was Sajdeh’s argument that since he was always on the field and exposed to the sun, he had to take care of his skin and that's where a fairness cream for men would be an appropriate endorsement for him to do.
Sajdeh, also manages Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik. Both, he says, are considered mature cricketers who know how to handle media pressure. “We are blessed to be handling star performers. Their on-field performances do make a huge difference in brand endorsement but with IPl and other formats becoming popular, it is just a waiting game before they take off,” he says.
Sharma and Karthik's endorsement values had briefly skyrocketed after the Twenty20 championships in 2007. Prior to this, both were struggling to command more than Rs 10 lakh to Rs 15 lakh per endorsement. But after the introduction of the new format, Sharma and Karthik hoped to hit Rs 30 lakh for new deals.
In 2011, a finicky Sajdeh turned down an offer for Kohli from a leading two-wheeler company because it had multiple celebrities endorsing it. “We didn't want Virat to be one among many. Hence, we signed another two-wheeler company –TVS,” he says, emphasising that it is brands who need the cricketers and not the other way round.
Melroy D Souza agrees that “branding and promotion is a competition. We are simple agents who are there to provide guidance. That's all,” he concludes.
like Naidu, Sajdeh too had a commerce background when he entered this field. But he was better connected than Naidu. After graduating from the HR College of Commerce and Economics in Mumbai, Sajdeh joined his brother-in-law, film producer Sohail Khan, in his event management company, to avoid working in his father’s garment manufacturing business. After learning the basics, he joined Percept D'Mark as a manager where he put in a solid five years managing high profile events like the Hero Indian Sports Awards and several Sahara India events, including the the Sangeet Awards. Sajdeh, who has represented Maharashtra in tennis, joined Globosport, and diversified into celebrity management. He spent 10 years in the industry before starting out on his own with Cornerstone Sports & Entertainment.
Though MS Dhoni’s friend and manager Arun Pandey refused to join this story, preferring to not return phone calls or emails, he is the most powerful agent in the field today. Pandey founded Rhiti Sports in 2007. In July 2010, Rhiti grabbed headlines when it bagged the rights to represent Dhoni on a record minimum guarantee of Rs 210 crore for three years. With that deal, Dhoni surpassed Sachin Tendulkar, who had a Rs 180 crore deal for three years.
Once a national-level cricketer, Pandey has been a friend of Dhoni since his early playing days. They first got to know each other 15 years ago when Pandey was bowling to Dhoni at the nets. As Dhoni moved up as a cricketer and became a key player for India, he encouraged Pandey to get into sports marketing and let him strike a few deals for him.
Today, Pandey is like a family member for Dhoni and his closest confidante.