Indian team was one of the highest brands in India in terms of value during the last few months. Since the historic win of the World Cup, the players and the team as a whole have seen a great rise in the endorsements. Cricketers like Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina saw their sponsorship and endorsements soar to almost double their earlier value, while the established names of Dhoni and Sachin had a fourfold increase in their value.

Brand Team India losing ground

But the current form of the Indian team has seemed to take the brand value of the team on a downward spiral. According to Indranil Blah, vice-president, Kwan Entertainment, a sports & celebrity management firm, Indian team needs to change in the process as far as managing the game goes. They expect that the senior players will be retiring soon and there will be a re-haul in the system and the brands are looking at the young players as potential options for the future.

Shailendra Singh, joint MD, Percept, said that it was a spine-less loss and such a poor show is bound to make the current cricketers face a volatile world of business and sports. He said that brands are not emotional about cricket and rightfully affected, the business of cricket is going to get hurt with such poor performance. He insists that when the team won the World Cup, Dhoni’s ratings went up, so similarly with such a shameful loss, his ratings are bound to come down.

On an optimistic note, Jeet Banerjee of Gameplan, a sports management agency said that the euphoria will return back in to cricket if Indian team manages to perform in the ODI series. They believe that it is a bit early to write off the Indian tem yet.

Brands themselves have a different view on the whole issue of branding their products via cricket stars. Companies like Canon and Dabur, who have associated themselves with Sachin and Dhoni, to promote their products have a long term view on the game. Canon stated that it would be great to break the campaign considering the festive season and added that for players like Sachin, performance is not intertwined with his image.

Tags: Brand, Canon, Cricket, Dabur, Indranil Blah, Jeet Banerjee, Sachin Tendulkar, Shailendra Singh, Sports, Team India, World Cup