The owners of the IPL (Indian Premier League) have paid big bucks for brand ambassadors: Katrina kaif for Bangalore Royal Challengers, Hrithik Roshan for Mumbai Indians, to name two. Bangalore Royal Challengers have lost 4 games in a row and Mumbai Indians haven’t done well either. The (initially) lowly rated Rajasthan Royals have won several games. Shane Warne, the captain of the Rajasthan Royals is being called the best captain Australia never had.
The brand ambassador of Chennai Super Kings is another actress: I have never heard of her, but I assume she is famous. Chennai Super Kings paid several million rupees to her and are now trying to get the money back. She is alleged to have feigned illness so that she doesn’t have be present at a game in Chennai but was spotted a few hours later in Hyderabad for a film shoot! Katrina Kaif was shooting in Goa and she missed the flight to Bangalore where the Royal Challengers had a game on. In her case, it is convenient that the owner of the Bangalore team also owns an airline — Kingfisher — and so she arrived in one of his personal jets. I am not sure if Bangalore won that game: they are at the verge of elimination and have sacked the CEO, Charu Sharma. They should have sacked the brand ambassador instead, claiming she brought bad luck!
Isn’t winning the best brand ambassador?
The money spent on these brand ambassadors could be spent on ‘buying’ better cricket talent.
We have 37 year old players like McGrath and Jayasurya playing in the IPL. Why not choose a slightly older person, say Gundappa Vishwanath (Vishy) as the brand ambassador of Bangalore Royal Challengers? The money goes to a cricket legend and not to an actress; the ambassador may even give some tips to the players, instead of wearing makeup and looking pretty. The elders watching the mach will recall fond memories of Vishy in action; the youngsters can get to know another master blaster.