Boria Majumdar in Sydney
Who is India’s best red-ball cricketer at the moment? Rather, who is India’s best player across all formats? The answer, most will agree, is Jasprit Bumrah. He is India’s numero uno, and the impact he has had globally is just phenomenal. And yet, he isn’t Indian cricket’s biggest brand. If you look at crowd pullers or men who command much more money in the market, you will see Bumrah way down the pecking order. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill and then, maybe, Bumrah alongside KL Rahul. Shouldn’t it be that your best player is the biggest brand? More so when he is as articulate and as poised as Bumrah? And yet, that’s not the case.
The question to ask is why. Is it because he is a bowler, and it has forever been about batters in Indian cricket? Maybe that’s why Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag or VVS Laxman were bigger brands than Anil Kumble, who was one of India’s biggest match-winners. The same can be said of Ravichandran Ashwin. There is no debate that Ashwin was one of India’s biggest match-winners in the last decade and a half. And yet he wasn’t given the same brand value as Kohli or Rohit or Hardik Pandya.
Is there a method to this madness, or is it just about how things are and have always been? Why wouldn’t the market go with the best players? Is it because Kohli is married to Anushka Sharma, a big star in her own right, and that has helped the cumulative brand value of the couple? But then, Ritika isn’t a celebrity, and yet Rohit is certainly a bigger brand than many I have mentioned above.
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We have forever felt that brand value is directly related to performance. You win an Olympic medal and you are a brand back home. But except for Manu Bhaker and Neeraj Chopra, none of the medal winners at the Olympics have become brands. Be it Sarabjot Singh, Aman Sehrawat or Swapnil Kusale, none of them have become poster boys in India despite winning an Olympic medal.
Coming to the Paralympics, Navdeep Singh is now a household name. But the same can’t be said of Harvinder (archery gold) or Nitesh (badminton gold). And this is where things turn a bit problematic. When one athlete starts to command more money and more endorsements, it automatically creates unpleasantness or jealousy. In fact, it is to an extent inevitable.
As for Bumrah, I think the next three to four years will belong to him. With both Kohli and Rohit in the twilight of their careers, Bumrah is surely Indian cricket’s biggest brand in the not-too-distant future. The fact that he has a very good head on his shoulders should help, and also the fact that he stands for the very middle-class-Indian values of family first. May I also say he deserves it. To bowl the way he has done takes a lot and the least he can get in return is fan support and market value. That he is a very likeable personality should also make a difference, and in England, we expect to see a lot more of Bumrah in the press during the build-up to what promises to be a terrific summer.
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