Brands are not certain on signing India U19 players at this time

The India U19 team won the World Cup 2018 in New Zealand, they played like true champions all the way through and lifted the title. There were star performers for the team like Shubhman Gill, skipper Prithvi Shaw and even the pace bowling duo Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi. All of them also have IPL contracts in their name but that hasn’t earned them endorsements yet.

Though Shaw already has a couple of brands behind his back in dietary supplement brand Protinex and MRF Tyres who sponsor his bat. But that was even before he embarked on the junior World Cup journey with the other boys. The fact that they’re through with a probable high in their career and the future as senior cricketers remains uncertain is what keeps the bigger companies away from signing deals at this time in a player’s career.

Brands may want to wait

“Brands may want to wait it out and observe their careers and then sign someone a couple years down the line,” Ramakrishnan R, founder of Baseline Ventures was quoted as saying by Business Standards.

At the same time, he believes that it is an opportunity for the brands to associate with the players when they are young and then be a part of their success journey to the top. “Perhaps, another way to go about it is to sign on a player right now for a longer period of time, which will allow them to be part of his growth story,” he added.

Visibility has improved

What makes the brands sceptical is the fact that some of the youngsters who showed great promise at the U19 level weren’t quite able to translate it into senior cricket. Apart from Virat Kohli, Ravindra Jadeja, Yuvraj Singh, Manish Pandey and a few others a lot of players have actually failed to earn a place in the national team after playing U19 cricket.

But then it is a double-edged sword, if a player goes on to make it big in the next few months which is very much possible with an IPL contract in their hands, the fees would go up multiple folds and the brand will end up shelling much more than what they can sign the players for now. The Indian team got a lot of attention during their campaign this time as well with fans involved all over social media.

Indianil Das Blah, partner and COO of KWAN also told the portal that “The good thing for this lot of players is the massive visibility new media affords them. Back when Virat (Kohli) led his squad to victory, the amount of visibility was limited. But for this team, that is not an issue. Most of the players already have agencies representing them and with so many of them in the IPL, it will definitely help build their profile. But at the end of the day, it will always boil down to how they break into the senior team and hold on to their place in the playing 11,” he was quoted.

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