Sachin’s brand value will remain intact, asserts WSG

Mumbai: Irrespective of his poor run with the bat and speculations and demands over his retirement from ODIs, the brand value of Sachin Tendulkar will remain intact, according to World Sports Group, a sports marketing company which manages the endorsement deals for the Master Blaster.

Speaking at a press conference in Mumbai, WSG country head and senior vice-president Harish Krishnamachar said that Sachin is with realistic expectation and is a little beyond the game today. “The recent happenings have led to debates and discussions among the public, but from commercial point of view, most of the associations he has, are long running - at least of a decade. Marketers view this as a long-term investment and they don't look at it as a short term," he added.

Krishnamachar said his company had taken into consideration the uncertainty on how long the career of Tendulkar would extend when it had signed him in 2006-07.  "Nobody knew how long he would play. We did not know that whether he would play for the next six years, so we had factored that as well as how we could look at brand Tendulkar and keep it logically alive."

WSG on Monday signed Pujara under its player management programme for two years, making him the third Indian cricketer after Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Gambhir to do so.