"My father's an exotic dancer in a gay cabaret and takes off all his clothes in front of other men and they put money in his underwear. Sometimes, if the offer is really good, he will go home with some guy and stay with him all night for money."
The teacher, obviously shaken by this statement, hurriedly set the other children to work on some exercises and then took the little boy aside to ask him, "Is that really true about your father?"
"Not really," the boy said, "He actually plays cricket for India but I was too embarrassed to say that in front of the other kids .......
Just one of the cricketer joke thats spreading in the net....... We, especially the ones who are immersed in the internet had been cruel with the men in blue who put us to shame , immersing all the hopes in the sea at the Carribean ...debating, joking, rumouring. and even dying for it........ it is unforgettable .......this outrage about cricket... the religion, hope and aspiration of millions... but what is shocking is the sudden enlightenment , and regaining of sanity with all the fury and fire and all the analysis as to why they ditched us and why they couldnt perform the way they should have??
It seems all the analysts have reached so far at the same conclusion... the reason for the ailing Indian cricket... the virus for the dreaded disease...ENDORSEMENTS....
Suddenly it has turned into a bad word... and some thing from which every body has to keep away from... The BCCI or the circus team as many call it, has decided to limit the number of endorsements from the infinity to three, as if it is going to be the formula for success. The seemingly eccentric voices which said that they murdered the wrong coach in the hotel room there... is unheard .... the other reasons are simply unattended to..Cricket managers in the country have, flogged the game a bit too much. Fewer the number of games, more the interest but who cares...its all about money.... The reasons for the non performance,however, is not the purpose of this blog, its not my job, I am here to peep into the facts of cricketers and their endorsements and the whole tangle involved....
It is true that our men in blue were seen everywhere and some even went to the extent of endorsing even ten or eleven brands at the same time...... ending the consumer in big confusion,,, that is true and no one can deny that.. there should be a check on the type of brands that each one endorses and not on the numbers.. a check on numbers have invited a lot of wrath and scum from cricketers and others... 'It is a joke the way the board is limiting players from signing endorsements. You can't be treating senior players like Sachin Tendulkar as kids,' said WasimAkram in an interview to a sports channel....as reported by online media...If some senior players have advised the board to stop endorsements, then it is wrong...the jealousy factor is very clear....
Now that the bickering and jealousy is clear, the politics and pressure games are more than out in the open, why blame endorsements as if it is a crime?...
Is it not the right of every one to earn money for a decent living..? Just because one is a cricketer, is it a shame to be earning money..? Why is it that loss in a match, suddenly degrades them as jokers and good for nothing entertainers, forgetting the fact that they with their bats and balls have thrilled us... elevated us to the unseen shores of joy,,united this federation of nations into one...?
The sensation driven media( even South africa got out of the world cup and the media and hence the public cry there was limited and more decent... no walls where broken atleast..) fuels and fans the image that, an average cricketer spends all his time before the arc light and obeying the lights, camera and action directives than being in the field and listen to what his coach will have to say..? Is it not really the case... Not a bulk of time is spend on the shoots and really they dont have to skip their net and other practise sessions to be for shoots even when they endorse multiple products at the same time... may be if they skip for other reasons, endorsements as a type of advertising strategy is not to be blamed......
Performance is the key word for a cricketer to be choosen as an endorser for a brand..so it is not true that they fail to perform as they are into ad shoots, it rather should be the other way round... atleast to make money from endorsements ,cricketers have to perform for sure..... and in extreme cases where the cricketers has endorsed and the ads are on air and the performance dipped after that, any time he can go off air as did the recent Videocon ads with Mahendra singh dhoni .......
Now you ask what about all the money that was wasted on cricket associated advertising?......Blame the hopeless advertising strategists ( on the agency side and the client side) and the media planners for betting too much on one sport , but not on endorsements as an advertising strategy.......The lesson is simple.....If the anguished cry of millions has not reached our cricketers, this one will.... Cheesed off by their poor performance, top cricket sponsors are about to snap their purses shut. ..... It is through the game that the cricketers name ,fame and identity is known and not the other way round. and the lazy agencies and their clueless clients, unless you stop killing this golden goose ,simply because you want returns without efforts, things are gonna get worse....
Too much of anything is bad... even if it is the best and time tested strategy.....
Critics.... are you listening?
Tail piece:-
After the shameful defeat of Team India,the team members were not able to show their faces to people and they chose not to go in public and rather just pack up in hotel rooms. Dravid could not resist for too long to be in the hotel room and still not be able to go out shopping. So he disguises himself as a Sardar and goes out.
He meets a woman at the exit of the hotel who greets him "Hi Dravid!"
Surprised for having been caught he comes back and makes himself up as a muslim woman - in Burkha etc and goes out.
Yet the same woman greets him "Hi Dravid!"
Dravid comes back determined to give it yet another try with the make up of a Hippie wig and shorts etc. All in vain, the same lady catches him again and greets him "Hi Dravid!".
Bewildered by now, he could not help asking, "How did you recognise me?"
The lady replied - "I am Sachin!"
