Brand Tendulkar controls Sachin
Suresh Menon, writing for Cricket Next , says sportsmen are more valuable on the field than off it, and it is only human to try and keep them there for as long as it is commercially viable.
Nikita Bastian
25-Feb-2013
Suresh Menon, writing for Cricket Next, says sportsmen are more valuable on the field than off it, and it is only human to try and keep them there for as long as it is commercially viable.
It makes no commercial sense to have your star constantly in the eye of the retirement storm. If Tendulkar were a country, any credit-rating outfit would downgrade him amidst such talk. Remove the perception and watch the investments flow in. If the Tendulkar index drops, it is necessary to affect a correction. The player may not even be aware of the subtleties involved, but he plays along.
Is it really Sachin Tendulkar himself who will decide when to hang up his boots? I don't think so. This is the flip side of the millions. High earning sportsmen make a Faustian deal with the money devil; they are paid sums beyond the dreams of avarice for a decade or two. Then, when they seek peace and serenity and a period away from the game if not retirement from it, the devil demands his part of the bargain. Keep playing. Keep bringing in the money. You are an industry, you have to feed and clothe those who have invested in you.
Nikita Bastian is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo