Bearish trend in Indian cricket market

From being players alone, Indian cricketers were transformed into those who could sway their hips, giving the Bollywood stars a run for their money. They were the brand ambassadors for many products, not only Indian but also multinationals. One could see Sachin Tendulkar explaining how to write, where his power lies, the secret of his energy while Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar showed us what to wear. Ajay Jadeja gave his bit on how to ride a bicycle while Mohd. Azharuddin talked about the kind of shoes and watch to buy and the drink he prefers the most.

The whole team was shown sweating and fuming with the slogan 'Come on India, Dhikkadho (show what you can do)". The likes of Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Robin Singh, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad, Javagal Srinath and Nikhil Chopra were also not left far behind. All this held good till a few months back. Then their ad world crumbled around them. With Hansie Cronje's confession and the match fixing scandal subsequently making its presence felt strongly in India, the marketing scenario involving the cricketers changed for the worse.

Indeed, Cronje and a few of his team mates were the first victims in losing either their endorsements or having their advertisements withdrawn. The South African players modelled for a suiting advertisement and this was the first one to be chopped unceremoniously from both the print and television media.

If the South Africans were the fallen heroes, a few Indian players too suffered a similar fate. Even an icon of Indian cricket like Kapil Dev wasn't spared. He had made a comeback into the modelling scene during the course of the 1999 World Cup endorsing quite a few products. He is seen less on the small screen now while Azharuddin and Jadeja too have been marginalised even though they do occasionally display a product.

More and more companies who were featuring cricketers to endorse their products have now shifted their loyalty to Bollywood stars. Only the likes of Tendulkar and Ganguly have withstood this sudden shift. The main reason ostensibly is the match-fixing scandal. The other reason is the falling TRP viewership rating to the matches being telecast live. The viewership during the Asia Cup telecast was so low that some of the the companies who had the cricketers promoting their products pressed the panic button. With more skeletons likely to come out of the cupboard, the players-turned-models can expect harder times in this regard.

The players and officials could not have realised that the scam would take a toll on them as well as the game for the money wending machine - the sponsors - are now looking at alternative sports or events to get a better and 'clean' mileage. The sponsors are having their fingers crossed on how to deal with the forthcoming one-day international at Toronto, for more revelations are expected in the scandal.

Therefore, the pull out of the sponsors is going to hurt all those concerned in the game - the government, the BCCI and mostly the players. With sponsorship and financial backing - not to mention valuable foreign exchange - for the game falling, cricket, which has been for long a big money spinner for all concerned, may lose the goose that lays the golden egg. The BCCI which has depended on major sponsorship deals to sustain the growth of the game worldwide, may be hit badly. All the more reason then for the government and the CBI to bring the current probe to its logical conclusion as early as possible.