He is surely the man India is looking up to. He is what ‘Youngistaan’ wants to be. He is finally what India was yearning for all these years. Not the Rahul of Dil To Pagal Hai, who goes off to sleep in designer clothes and gurgles cola first thing in the morning, but the one who’s closer to existing concepts. One, who gets off his Mercedes outside his small hometown, gets his teammates to stick their tongues out after grabbing a catch and leads the ‘Ishtylebaaz’ pack in the locality. Mahendra Singh Dhoni is on his way to become the biggest cricketer-ad icon of the country and the latest news is that he has already put a price tag higher than that of Sachin Tendulkar at his peak on himself for a commercial! As of March 2007, MSD had 17 endorsements. Big Bazaar, Lafarge India added their names to the list ever since and Dainik Bhaskar, one of the leading Hindi dailies in the country signed him as their brand ambassador.
According to market reports, the Dhoni brand which was valued at Rs.1 Crore before the T20 World Cup final in Johannesberg in September last year, shot up to Rs. 3 Crore overnight. And it’s been on an uphill climb ever since!
The Indian ad-industry largely depends on filmstars (male actors are convincingly outnumbered by their female colleagues), who continue to portray larger-than-life images and cricketers. Understandably so, as these are the two most glamorous professions in the country. Farookh Engineer was the first cricketer on record to endorse a product and ironically, Brylcreem, the hair cream which signed Engineer three decades back, signed Dhoni too. Amongst cricketers, largely iconic figures on and off the field were chosen for TV commercials and not all of them lived up to their reputation.
Multiple factors contributed to MSD’s ad fortune. To start with, the country has become more receptive towards the depiction of normal, regular, usual, at times even mundane occurrences of life on screen (case in point, the triumph of films like Khosla ka Ghosla, Bheja Fry, Honeymoon Travels Pvt. Ltd, Namastey London etc.). Secondly, the ad-maker’s policy of sticking to the persona of Mahi and not transforming him into a super human. To top it all, there is nothing funny about Dhoni in the commercials, whether his voice or dance steps. In fact, he turned out to be a natural actor. What must have also helped is the way Dhoni continues to carry himself on the field. His iconic stature is never evident, as if he’s just one of the rest, who’s lucky with the coin and thus, steps forward at the time of toss.
The only thing that does not match his image is his batting and needless to say, that’s the greatest contributing factor behind his success. When the boy-next-door plays those out-of-the-planet shots, Indians find strength in their belief.
Monday, June 30, 2008
Saturday, June 28, 2008
All’s well that … Mr. Dhoni?
Another feather in the crown for the Prince of Calcutta. The day after Dhoni’s boys demolished Pakistan in the Asia Cup in Karachi (fastest successful Indian run chase when the target was in excess of 300), Sourav Ganguly was adjudged the Asian Cricketer of the Year and the Asian Batsman of the Year at the Castrol Asian Cricket Awards. Along with former Pakistani skipper Wasim Akram and former Sri Lankan skipper Sanath Jaysuriya, Rahul Dravid was the other jury member.
Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged the best ODI batsman and Gautam Gambhir took the honors in T20. Sri Lankan vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara and teammate Muttiah Muralitharan were the obvious choices in batting and bowling in Tests while another Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof was picked amongst ODI bowlers.
As if to sum up the sincere and concerted effort to keep everyone in the subcontinent happy (the panel also had equal representation), the other three awards went to Pakistan. Umar Gul was given the Best T20 Bowler award, Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper was chosen the Best Fielder, and Hanif Mohammad was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award.
In this day and age of cricket-corporate mishmash, another award really doesn’t mean a thing. But each and every award is special for Ganguly. In a career now spanning over 16 years, the charismatic left-hander has probably achieved more in the last one and a half years, ever since he made his fairytale comeback in international cricket, than compared to the first decade of his Test career. Most importantly, he has restored his pride and every award is recognition of his epochal battle which was deemed lost by all and sundry.
Even as we realize that there could be worthy successors in Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa, it’s a tad too disturbing to cope with the fact that public memory is not only short-lived but the pace at which it travels to disappear, could be faster than that of light! The same sets of spectators, commentators and experts, who thought the seniors were indispensable only a few months back are now basking in the young brigade’s glory. Nothing wrong with that as long as the team delivers on the field. But it’s not a cultured habit to change opinions every now and then.
After all this debate, there is no denying the fact that the end of the road for not only Ganguly but the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Indian cricket is more than visible now. While there are talks that news channels are queuing up in front of their houses to bag a contract before others, even an ardent supporter would agree with the Indian manager and former South African international Gary Kirsten that the current combination of Men in Blue in 50 overs is well worth trying.
The young heroes deserve all the credit for that but Castrol Asian Cricket Awards once again underlined the illogical reasoning of Indian cricket administrators. It’s a proven fact after so many years that they depend on their sixth or seventh or maybe eighth sense when they come up with new theories and whether they will work or not is for time to decide, unlike the Australians, who follow a scientific method and thus, their theories are more often than not sound. On the other hand, if the Indian administrator’s theories don’t work, the option of swallowing his words would always be open to him. Then he has his ever-reliable friend, public memory.
Luckily for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and India, it has worked this time around. At least, that’s what it seems as of now. But one must not forget, it was the same Suresh Raina, who flattered to deceive in his first stint with international cricket under Greg Chappell. There are still areas to work on, still question marks over a lot of things, one of them being whether the T20 World Cup winning captain is an automatic choice in Tests or not. Alok Kapali, the Bangladeshi batsman scoring his maiden international hundred against India in Asia Cup and the Tigers putting up a fighting total also calls for introspection. Finally, even with the average age of the players dropping down to 22-23, India is far from a great fielding side like Sri Lanka, let alone Australia or South Africa. Dhoni’s job right now would not only be to maintain the sensible head that he was blessed to be born with, but also not to allow the Rainas and the Uthappas get carried away after the limited success that has come their way.
Sachin Tendulkar was adjudged the best ODI batsman and Gautam Gambhir took the honors in T20. Sri Lankan vice-captain Kumara Sangakkara and teammate Muttiah Muralitharan were the obvious choices in batting and bowling in Tests while another Sri Lankan Farveez Maharoof was picked amongst ODI bowlers.
As if to sum up the sincere and concerted effort to keep everyone in the subcontinent happy (the panel also had equal representation), the other three awards went to Pakistan. Umar Gul was given the Best T20 Bowler award, Kamran Akmal, the wicketkeeper was chosen the Best Fielder, and Hanif Mohammad was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement award.
In this day and age of cricket-corporate mishmash, another award really doesn’t mean a thing. But each and every award is special for Ganguly. In a career now spanning over 16 years, the charismatic left-hander has probably achieved more in the last one and a half years, ever since he made his fairytale comeback in international cricket, than compared to the first decade of his Test career. Most importantly, he has restored his pride and every award is recognition of his epochal battle which was deemed lost by all and sundry.
Even as we realize that there could be worthy successors in Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina and Robin Uthappa, it’s a tad too disturbing to cope with the fact that public memory is not only short-lived but the pace at which it travels to disappear, could be faster than that of light! The same sets of spectators, commentators and experts, who thought the seniors were indispensable only a few months back are now basking in the young brigade’s glory. Nothing wrong with that as long as the team delivers on the field. But it’s not a cultured habit to change opinions every now and then.
After all this debate, there is no denying the fact that the end of the road for not only Ganguly but the ‘Holy Trinity’ of Indian cricket is more than visible now. While there are talks that news channels are queuing up in front of their houses to bag a contract before others, even an ardent supporter would agree with the Indian manager and former South African international Gary Kirsten that the current combination of Men in Blue in 50 overs is well worth trying.
The young heroes deserve all the credit for that but Castrol Asian Cricket Awards once again underlined the illogical reasoning of Indian cricket administrators. It’s a proven fact after so many years that they depend on their sixth or seventh or maybe eighth sense when they come up with new theories and whether they will work or not is for time to decide, unlike the Australians, who follow a scientific method and thus, their theories are more often than not sound. On the other hand, if the Indian administrator’s theories don’t work, the option of swallowing his words would always be open to him. Then he has his ever-reliable friend, public memory.
Luckily for Mahendra Singh Dhoni and India, it has worked this time around. At least, that’s what it seems as of now. But one must not forget, it was the same Suresh Raina, who flattered to deceive in his first stint with international cricket under Greg Chappell. There are still areas to work on, still question marks over a lot of things, one of them being whether the T20 World Cup winning captain is an automatic choice in Tests or not. Alok Kapali, the Bangladeshi batsman scoring his maiden international hundred against India in Asia Cup and the Tigers putting up a fighting total also calls for introspection. Finally, even with the average age of the players dropping down to 22-23, India is far from a great fielding side like Sri Lanka, let alone Australia or South Africa. Dhoni’s job right now would not only be to maintain the sensible head that he was blessed to be born with, but also not to allow the Rainas and the Uthappas get carried away after the limited success that has come their way.
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