Money's still in cricket, football a poor cousin
Author: syed
New Delhi: Is there life beyond cricket in India? Can the footballers, especially after their Nehru Cup win, become brand ambassadors in the future and can they displace the cricketers from their heady pedestal.
Well if the figures are taken into account footballers lag the cricketers by a long shot.
In cricket-crazy India it not often that one sees a footballer at a promotional event. But after a historic win on Tuesday, Indian footballer Renedy Singh was at a Reebok store in New Delhi for a promotional campaign.
Reebok is the same company that holds the endorsement reigns of many cricketers.
"When it comes to soccer, we have three clubs of which we are the official sponsors. We have Mohan Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting. When it comes to cricket we have 10 players who are in the Indian team. That is a lot I believe," says Reebok's Saurabh Agarwal.
When the Indian football team was celebrating the Nehru Cup win, cricketer Virender Sehwag was in the stands.
The Beautiful Game may be as exciting as the Gentleman's Game but not certainly rewarding enough
The divide is clear and the numbers say it all.
While an Indian international cricketer earns in Rs 1- 3 lakh as match fee, for a contracted footballer the amount is virtually nil.
An Indian cricket player also earns about Rs 2-3 crore per year from the game but in case of an Indian footballer is about Rs 10-15 lakh apart from the bonuses that they get per tournament.
Big guns in Indian cricket earn about Rs 30 crore a year just from endorsements but the big names on the football field manage just Rs 35 to 40 lakh.
Even at national level Ranji players will now take back about Rs 60 lakh a year while playing for clubs a footballer like Baichung Bhutia earns about Rs 40 to 45 lakhs.
"Would you want a cricketer or a footballer to endorse your product and why? For people to follow a game they have to win. Not once but at least 50 per cent of the times which the cricket team has done. They have lost badly but also won many matches. At least it is 50-50," Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar says.
The fans can only hope that the Nehru Cup win ushers a new dawn and much more rewarding era for football in India.
