 "Cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar with P V Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar and Pullela Gopichand. Photo: Sachin Tendulkar Twitter Handle")
Indian women athletes are endorsing equal number of brands as the cricketers are doing in the recent times, and probably more when compared to men athletes. After winning the medals in Olympics 2016 at Rio, women athletes - PV Sindhu, Sakshi Malik, Dipa Karmakar – are gaining more attention from several big brands of the country.
Star players like Sania Mirza endorses a number of brands including Adidas and Emami, while Fortune oil and Yonex sports are some of the brands in Saina Nehwal’s kitty. Sindhu and Sakshi are likely to announce their association with other brands in a couple of weeks.
Sindhu’s brand manager Ramakrishnan, co-founder and director of Baseline Ventures, said, “Various companies are approaching us with endorsement proposals, but we are still evaluating the offers. We are looking for long term credible partnerships. We will disclose more details in next two weeks.”
Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal are getting paid in between Rs 35-50 lakh per brand endorsement which is at par with any top cricket player, except MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli. Other cricketers such as Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina would charge around Rs 50-60 lakh per deal. Olympic medallists would be earning similar to this, according to the experts.
After becoming the first Indian woman to win Olympic silver medal, Sindhu is likely to be offered Rs 60-70 lakh per endorsement. If she keeps winning the world tournaments, her brand value may go up to Rs 1 crore and beyond. Sakshi and Dipa have less visibility, but still they can earn up to Rs 30 lakh per deal, they said.
Indranil Das Blah, chief operating officer of sports management agency CAA KWAN said, “Women athletes have proven to be as popular as cricketers during the last 6-7 years. Many companies including few international brands are signing contracts with Indian women sport stars.”
Fitness, personal care, fashion and health related companies are showing more interest in having women brand ambassadors depending on the popularity of the athlete, he informed.
Speaking about the trend of appointing brand ambassadors by state governments, Blah said that only Telangana government has done this. Other state governments may also encourage the sports persons in this way.
“In the past, only smaller budget companies used to look for women brand ambassadors as they were paid less fees when compared to the cricket stars. Now, the trend has changed,” another brand expert Harish Bijoor said.
The remuneration gap between the women athletes and cricketers has narrowed down. Indian female players are extremely professional and are being recognised globally, he further said.
Chandramouli, CEO of Trust Research Advisory (TRA) said that performance is the key criteria for brand endorsements: "Whoever plays better in the team would be well paid by the brands irrespective of their gender or sport."
Other than cricket, team sports such as hockey or kabaddi have not made any major impact on brand endorsements. Earlier, cricketers alone were enjoying the star status. Now, individual athletes are gaining recognition but they may be forgotten faster, if they are not consistently successful.
