The current Indian team’s skipper Virat Kohli has recently announced his decision to step down from the T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup in October. A couple of days later, he also announced his decision to quit Royal Challengers Bangalore’s captaincy after IPL 2021 as well.
It was a big blow for all the Virat Kohli fans out there and to the Indian cricket fraternity as a whole as well. Apart from being the captain, Kohli was also one of the major contributors with the bat to both teams. He also recently became the first cricketer to play 200 IPL matches for a single franchise.
But the question that arises is that ‘Will Virat Kohli’s brand value get affected following his resignation as India’s T20I and RCB captain?’
The answer to that question would be NO on any given day. Even though the 32-year-old cricketer has decided to quit the T20I and RCB captaincy, the brand value that Virat Kohli currently holds won’t get affected.
His presence on the field and the massive following is enough to retain the brands which he endorses irrespective of him being the captain on the field or not.
Even Ritesh Nath, an independent sports consultant in an interview believed that Kohli’s decision will have no impact on his marketability. He further said, “It all comes down to performance and once he runs into top form, everything will be forgotten. Kohli will be on the pitch and for a good cricketer like him, eyeballs will always be assured.”
Nath also cites the example of Sachin Tendulkar, whose career only got better after quitting the captaincy.
Kohli is the most expensive name in the game of cricket today. Stepping down from captaincy won’t make a big difference to brands, both; the ones already associated with him or getting new brands on board.
Kohli already has partnership and endorsement deals in place with some popular brands such as MRF, Myntra, American Tourister, Puma, Volini, Audi, Uber India, Royal Challenge, etc. He also recently signed a partnership with the wellness brand Hyperice as its global brand ambassador as well as athlete-investor.
As said before he is the most expensive name in cricket and the money that he gets for all of his deals has steadily increased each year. Kohli charges around 1.25 crore for a single paid post on his Instagram account, a number that was Rs 80 lakh a couple of years ago. The endorsement fee for any of the brands that have been mentioned above is said to be in the range of Rs 5 to 7 crore each year.
To draw a comparison, Rohit Sharma’s fee is around Rs 3 crore, while the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and KL Rahul are in the Rs 1-1.25 crore range.
Neha Puri, CEO & Founder of Vavo Digital in a statement said, “Brands don’t require the tag of captaincy, they require him. His outstanding popularity over the globe has been through his skills and also his huge social media presence. He won’t lose out on anything because the brands know his worth too well to let him go.”
The kind of aura, which Kohli as a cricketer brings on the field grabs the eyeballs, so even though Kohli steps down from the captaincy role, big brands and products will still place their bets on him.