Retired, but not out: From Tendulkar to Kohli, how India's cricket icons are playing their second innings

Skin in the Game

While the role of a brand ambassador remains the most visible metric for brand value, equity ownership is fast emerging as a path to long-term legacy. Agilitas isn’t Kohli’s first equity investment—he is said to have put his money in 10-odd startups, including the likes of Blue Tribe and Digit Insurance. Dhoni has a portfolio spanning F&B to electric vehicles and aerospace to fintech, while Tendulkar has 10—five of these are pureplay equity partnerships, while the rest go beyond mere capital infusion and look at what his team calls “a seat at the table”.  

SRT10 Athleisure is one such venture, jointly helmed by former Swiggy executives Karthik Gurumurthy and Karan Arora. “For the past three to four years, we are focusing not just on equity partnerships, but also how we can align with a company from Day T-365. For SRT10 Athleisure, we have been involved in all aspects—right from getting investors Peak XV and Whiteboard Capital on board to roping in the senior leadership to planning the brand logo and even designing the products,” says Venkataraman R, vice president, SRT Sports Management (SRTSM), the independent team which manages Tendulkar.

The strategy mirrors a global playbook that allows elite athletes to stay relevant beyond their careers through astute investments. Recently, Roger Federer became the first tennis billionaire, courtesy high-value endorsement deals like Rolex and Uniqlo, and equity holdings—his 3 percent stake in Swiss running footwear company On is now valued around $500 million, according to Bloomberg’s wealth index, nearly 4x of the prize money he’s earned during a career studded with 20 Grand Slam titles. How such deals preserve brand longevity is evident from basketball legend Michael Jordan’s tie-up with Nike in 1984 for the Air Jordan line of sneakers. The partnership, while not of equity, includes a lifelong royalty for Jordan that earns him a higher per year revenue than that of his playing career. The sales of the brand surged 6 percent in 2024, accounting for 14 percent of Nike’s total sales revenues in 2024—the player’s net worth, meanwhile, touched $3.5 billion in 2023.  

“This is a highly lucrative investment vehicle because it leverages an athlete’s massive personal brand to drive scalable, high-margin consumer products across apparel, footwear, grooming and hospitality. With strong fan loyalty, repeat purchase potential, and multi-category expansion, brands like One8 (for Kohli), Air Jordan combine brand equity, cultural relevance and IP ownership, making them a rare asset-light business with long-term revenue streams and significant upside,” says Talikoti.

Where business equity isn’t in play, social equity is. Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, one of India’s most successful Test captains, isn’t big on entrepreneurial deals. “But he opens his entire ecosystem to the brands he endorses. We try to align synergies—like connecting DreamSetGo, a premium sports tourism brand, to HNI clients within our portfolio. Ganguly understands sales, P&L, strategies to maximise revenues, so even without direct investments in brands, he gives 360-degree support to brands that onboard him,” says Bhavesh Singh, chief business officer for Ganguly.  

Also read: The million-dollar pitch: Who'll be the next iconic cricketing brand?

Straight off the bat

Still, building brand equity doesn’t have a magic formula. The transition from backing brands to becoming one succeeds only if built on the foundation of exceptional on-field performances. Dhoni, who had 20-odd endorsements around 2008, has only seen his appeal multiply. The keeper-batter—who recently filed for a trademark for ‘Captain Cool’, a phrase that alludes to his calm on-field demeanour—now endorses 45 brands even though his international appearances thinned down in the latter part of the last decade, and ended with his retirement in 2019.

“It’s because of the milestones he achieved during this period,” says Jeet Banerjee, founder and CEO of Gameplan Sports, the first professional agency to represent the former captain between 2004 and 2008. “In 2007, he led India to victory in the T20 World Cup, a format India hadn’t embraced yet. But within six months of that victory, the Indian Premier League was launched and T20 became one of the most popular formats. In 2011, India won the 50-over World Cup under his leadership, ending a 28-year wait. Key inflection points in Indian cricket have been built around Dhoni.”

Dravid, who charges around Rs1.5 crore for a day’s brand work, is an example of how one’s playing career lends itself to a post-retirement portfolio. His partnership with Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) is hinged on his persona of Mr Dependable, invoking his iron-clad technique and the ability to steady the ship while batting at No 3. The PSU’s ad campaign for MAK Lubricants saw a 35 percent surge in aided awareness and a 65 percent rise in intent to purchase.

“Players like them have understood the character of their brand when they were playing. The life of a brand like Dravid can be extended by focusing on his dependability, Tendulkar’s by his ability to take the fight to the opposition, Dhoni’s by his leadership skills. Because people who believe in you already do so for a reason,” says Ramesh Jude Thomas, president and chief knowledge officer, EQUiTOR Value Advisory.

Dependability was what stood out for SaaS behemoth Salesforce when they onboarded Dravid for its first ever Indian advertising campaign. “In a country where credibility is earned, not claimed, Rahul brings an authenticity that instantly builds trust,” says Arundhati Bhattacharya, president & CEO, South Asia. “With him on board, we’ve been able to take enterprise technology out of the boardroom and into everyday conversations. The partnership has helped us connect innovation with integrity, and AI with real-world impact.”

It’s difficult to pinpoint in numbers how cricketers move the marketing needle for companies. But Agnishwar Jayaprakash, founder & CEO, Garuda Aerospace that has Dhoni as both an ambassador and a strategic investor, talks about the impact it has on a sunrise sector like drones. “We work in precision agriculture in rural India, which is not at all easy—getting farmers to use drones as a spray is tough due to inertia and resistance to change. But that has broken much faster, having him as a brand ambassador. His presence helped in accelerating the speed of adoption of drones in the country—not only for Garuda but for the industry in general,” says Jayaprakash. 

From the time the company roped in Dhoni, Garuda has gone from Rs15 crore in revenues in FY22 to Rs123 crore in FY25, and has also turned a profit. “It’s a two-way street—it shows the kind of work that we’ve been doing as well as how Dhoni has been guiding us through it.”  

Stepping Out

In India, cricketers command a rare pan-India appeal, unlike film stars whose fandom often splits along regional lines. Even retired legends resonate with audiences transcending geography and demography.

Ganguly, fondly called Dada for his Bengali roots, represents South Indian realty brand CasaGrand; Tendulkar, who retired in 2013, endorses new-age startups like Spinny; Ranchi boy Dhoni is a strategic investor as well as a brand ambassador for Chennai-based Garuda, while the introverted Dravid’s transformation into a hot-headed ruffian for the Cred ad has become part of advertising folklore.

Aside from the commercial upside, what do celebrities look for in brands? Exactly what brands look for in them—authenticity and relatability. “It didn’t take us long to convince Dravid to sign up for Grundfos pumps—he otherwise is a very curious guy and asks a lot of questions before approving. That’s because he has been using the product at his home for eight years,” says Sharba Tasneem, the founding team and AVP-key accounts and strategic initiatives-at Meraki Sport and Entertainment. “That’s why his equity investments are fewer and take place gradually. He needs to get comfortable with a brand before he decides to come on board as an investor.”

As social realities evolve, so do choices. Tendulkar, who had turned out for both sides in the Cola war in the 90s and noughties, endorsing both Pepsi and Coca-Cola during his career, has moved aerated drinks to his no-endorsements list along with tobacco, gambling and alcohol. “The context has changed; the health of the society and the awareness around it have changed. India has become the diabetes capital of the world, obesity is on the rise. And the awareness on what aerated drinks can do to your body is much higher than before,” says Athul Pillai, vice president, SRTSM. “Even as recent as last year, a brand had approached him, but we chose not to do it.”

Most of the deals that are eventually signed with these elite athletes are long term. Ganguly, who charges about Rs2.25-2.5 crore per brand per year, has been associated with Coca-Cola for 18 years, Vicco and Lloyd for five, and Dabur, Veedol and Mankind Pharma for four years. Tendulkar, who enjoys a near-100 percent renewal rate, has been associated with power company Luminous for the past 15 years, and has fashioned out of the commercial partnership, a non-profit venture with Schneider Electric, Luminous’s parent, to digitise classrooms.  

During their playing careers, India’s cricketing stalwarts have racked up numbers that still stand as benchmarks. The trend continues even in their retirement.