Sachin Tendulkar earns Rs 1.5 crore a day

PUNE, Jan 28: It must be the greatest start Sachin Tendulkar ever had: earning Rs 1.5 crore a day! In the first 27 days of 2011, the Little Master has won Rs 40 crore and two villas in new endorsement deals. If only he could match the strike rate on the pitch during this World Cup!

Indian cricket's little big man has signed deals with Pune-based real estate company Amit Enterprises for Rs 9 crore and apparel maker S Kumars Nationwide (SKNL) for Rs 12-13 crore, within days of Coca-Cola announcing a Rs 20-crore, three-year contract with the top batsman.

Tendulkar's deal with the Rs 250-crore developer includes two villas, priced at Rs 2.5 crore each, in Amit Enterprises' upscale housing project.

"We have taken Sachin as our brand ambassador because we are not known outside Pune, and his association with us should help when we start projects in Mumbai and Nashik," Amit Enterprises chairman and managing director Kishor Pate (Wani) said. The company plans to enter Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, he added.

SKNL , which already has high-velocity brand ambassadors such as Shah Rukh Khan for Belmonte and Amitabh Bachchan for luxury suitings brand Reid and Taylor, believes Tendulkar can help its economy brand, World Player, break into the value segment for men and become a pan-Indian brand.

"The timing of the World Cup is purely coincidental to the endorsement," SKNL's apparel and retail director Ashesh Amin said.

Tendulkar's association with the brand will extend to incorporating his personal tastes with respect to colours as well as the look & feel of the brand. "Tendulkar is a go-getter. His dedication and attitude fits into World Player's brand values," Amin said.

Last week, Coca Cola signed Tendulkar as its 'happiness ambassador', laying the pitch for a Tendulkar-M S Dhoni face-off in the cola battlefield this season. "Sachin Tendulkar will play his part in the company's various strategic communication initiatives including its corporate, CSR and brand campaigns," Coca-Cola said in a statement.

PepsiCo has already released a high-visibility campaign featuring the Indian cricket captain Dhoni. Sachin had endorsed PepsiCo for close to a decade before being dropped two years ago as they felt he did not fit their 'youngistaan' campaign theme.

Tendulkar endorses 17 brands, including Adidas, luxury Swiss watch maker Audemars Piguet, Canon, ITC, Aviva Life Insurance , RBS and appliances major Toshiba. He charges about $1 million per year per deal. His endorsements are managed by sports management firm World Sport Group.

Other cricketers like Gautam Gambhir and Virat Kohli are also learnt to be on a signing spree, and are on the verge of signing two-three deals each. Details of the same were not available.

CWG: After Australia, UK envoy demands payment to SIS Live

NEW DELHI, Jan 21: A British broadcast company is at the centre of an escalating row, with the British High Commissioner demanding that SIS Live be paid immediately for its production of the Commonwealth Games telecast, even as Prasar Bharati indicated that it would wait for the conclusion of the probe into CWG irregularities before shelling out the money.

“We are pursuing this matter with extreme urgency. SIS Live’s coverage of the Delhi Commonwealth Games was widely praised as first-class,” said British High Commissioner Richard Stagg in a statement on Friday. “SIS Live fulfilled its contractual obligations, against which all payments should have been made by now. The company is owed Rs. 96 crore. It is not right that the company should be penalised in this way. We look forward to early resolution of this matter.”

SIS Live says that of its total fee of Rs. 246 crore, agreed in a contract with Prasar Bharati, it is still waiting for the last two tranches – amounting to Rs. 96 crore – to be paid.

However, Prasar Bharati’s new acting chief executive Rajiv Takru indicated that he is likely to wait for the result of the Shunglu committee’s probe into the Games to be completed before taking a decision on the issue. He is also waiting for legal opinions on queries about the contract posed to the Law Ministry and legal experts, he told The Hindu.

“They [Information and Broadcasting Ministry] sent us a letter from A.K. Shunglu, saying that he is about to finalise his report in the next two weeks, and the Ministry should therefore take a conscious decision about what is to be done in the matter of payment to SIS,” said Mr. Takru, who is also an Additional Secretary in the Ministry. The letter from Mr. Shunglu, who was appointed by the Prime Minister to probe the allegations of corruption in the Games, was sent about a week ago.

Mr. Takru rejected any idea that Mr. Shunglu’s letter forbade Prasar Bharati from making the payment now. “It is by no means a prohibition, merely an advisory,” he said.

He added that the final bills from SIS Live, submitted in December, were being examined, even as Prasar Bharati awaited the responses to its requests for legal opinions, and the final Shunglu report. “Once we have that on record, then a final view will be taken,” he said, indicating that at least one week’s delay was inevitable.

Mr. Takru also seemed to take exception to SIS Live’s constant refrain – echoed by the British High Commissioner – that it had successfully delivered an excellent broadcast, and hence should be paid its final settlement.

“There is no point in keeping on saying that ‘we have delivered’ without examining all the provisions in the contract. The question of completion of the contract does not only mean completing the broadcast,” he said. “Supposing the final broadcast is OK, we should not just forget everything else.”

Prasar Bharati is examining whether SIS Live breached the contract, especially by subcontracting. The company claims this is common industry practice and was permitted in the contract.

SIS Live representatives are now expected to meet Mr. Takru on Tuesday to discuss the outstanding issues.

India reassures Australia on Commonwealth Games dues

MELBOURNE, Jan 20: External Affairs Minister S M Krishna has assured the Australian Government that he would take up the matter of non-payment of dues to companies for Commonwealth Games-related work.

According to reports, the Australian companies are preparing a lawsuit against the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, which allegedly owes millions of dollars to the firms.

"Amounts are due to some agencies in Australia who helped us to successfully hold the Commonwealth Games. There have been, it has been brought to my notice that there are outstandings from India's side. As soon as I go back to India, I will take it up with the Ministry of Sports, and I will certainly be the interlocutor on behalf of Australia so that their dues can be settled," he said.

He said it would take a few days before the dues are settled, as he would have to speak to the authorities regarding it.

Meanwhile, Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said his government was satisfied with the Indian Government's response.

"We did discuss these matters. We are comfortable about Indian Government's responses about the process we have in hand, which is a complicated one on the domestic matters in India itself. But these matters are well in hand," Rudd said.

"These are private contractual arrangements between individual companies on the one hand and authorities responsible for the management of the Commonwealth Games on the other. Therefore, these, as I said, in their essence are private, international, legal contractual arrangements. Second point, consistent with any other Australian company which experiences difficulties around the world, we will have work with them to ensure that appropriate payments and proper payments are made. And that is why I raised these matters of course with the Minister today," he added.

India owes payments to a number of Australian companies who worked for the Commonwealth Games held in New Delhi during October 3-14.

Many Australian companies have also complained that their equipments used during the opening and closing ceremony of the Games are still in New Delhi.