“I was the first one to sign a contract”: How Sachin Tendulkar’s INR 45 crore deal in 1995 with WorldTel changed the face of advertising in sports

It is a well-known fact that some cricketers nowadays have more popularity than movie stars, and big brands are now collaborating with sports stars for their endorsements. Players like MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, etc are the face of many big brands.

However, the same was not the case back then in the 1990s, and it was Sachin Tendulkar who actually started the revolution and signed a big deal with Mark Mascarenhas’ sports management firm WorldTel in 1995. After signing the deal, Tendulkar was heavily criticized.

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In 1995, Tendulkar signed a 5-year deal worth INR 45 crore, and when the deal expired in 2000, Tendulkar demanded INR 100 crore for the renewal. The amount was way too big at that time, and it opened the door for sports stars to be the face of big brand endorsements.

Sachin Tendulkar’s INR 45 crore deal with WorldTel changed the face of advertising in sports

Tendulkar appeared on the show Breakfast with Champions, where the talked about this incident. He said that he was the first one to sign such a contract, and people were against it by saying that he was just running after money. Although, Tendulkar said that he was not even thinking about money and his mind was just on the game.

Tendulkar insists that he never chased money after the contract as it just opened a lot of doors for him. It is certain that this deal revolutionized the sports marketing industry.

“It was 1995, and I’d like to believe that I was the first one to sign a contract like that in India, because that concept just wasn’t there yet,” Sachin Tendulkar said.

“There were a lot of opinions and people said that I was just running after money now. ‘What is the need to sign a contract?””

“And my thinking was exactly the opposite. That money just shouldn’t be a headache for me. I just wanted to focus on my game.”

Tendulkar has worked with brands like Pepsi, Adidas, MRF, etc, and he is still very active despite his international retirement in 2013. Although, according to industry experts, the fee of Tendulkar has come down a fair bit.