New Delhi: Rahul Dravid may or may not survive the BCCI axe to retain his captainship of Team India, but his sponsors have already given him the boot for the dismal performance of the Men in Blue in the cricket World Cup.
Another Indian cricketer who has fallen from grace with his sponsors is Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Videocon on Tuesday announced that it is pulling Dhoni from its ads and will go with film stars instead.
"We feel cheated by the hopeless performance of Team India. We had signed Dhoni three months ago, considering him to be one of the gems of the Indian cricket team. But he has failed miserably. Dhoni is out of Videocon ads and we cannot rely on Indian cricketers any further. We will soon sign film stars for our new ad campaigns," Videocon Industries chairman VN Dhoot has announced.
Sansui marketing director Anil Khera said the company will not feature Dravid in its new ad campaigns. "We have lost Rs 6 crore on our Rahul Dravid ad campaign,” Financial Express quoted Khera as saying.
"Our 40-day campaign with Dravid began in February 1, 2007. Fortunately, the contract ended before the World Cup began. Since Sansui is not a sponsor of the World Cup, we could not run the campaign when the World Cup was on,” he said.
Meanwhile, advertisers and the official broadcaster of World Cup matches in India, Sony, came face-to-face on Wednesday to renegotiate ad deals, reflecting the crisis that has surfaced after Team India's debacle in the World Cup.
The private channel has been insisting on compliance of contracts, saying any dilution could impact its anticipated Rs 500 crore advertising revenue from the championship.
Consumer goods giant LG, a major sponsor has already hinted it may not renew sponsorship deal with International Cricket Council after the World Cup, where favourites India fell in the preliminary rounds.
LG Electronics has spent Rs 50 crore on its ad campaigns on the World Cup. Videocon Industries spent Rs 15 crore, while Samsung India has spent Rs 10 crore.
Other global sponsors of ICC such as Hero Honda and PepsiCo said they were analysing the situation and a decision was likely to be taken in the next few weeks.
Sony Entertainment Television has, however, refused to budge despite pressure from advertisers to offer better packages after drop in viewership following India's exit.
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