My dog, Bolshoi The Boxer, wants me to buy him a plane ticket to South Africa.
Bolshoi is a huge cricket fan and the performance of the Indian cricket team in the first Test at the Centurion has him worried.
“How can the No. 1 Test team in the world stutter to 136-9? And none of the batsmen could score a fifty?”
“That’s easy to answer. They were Morkeled and Steyned.” I reply.
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Dhoni may be the Indian cricketer with the most endorsements but Tendulkar makes more money per deal than the Indian captain. Dhoni boasts of a Rs. 180 crore deal and has over 20 brands in his portfolio.
Tendulkar has fourteen endorsements and charges around Rs. 6 – Rs. 7 crores per client. Tendulkar has always been selective about his clientele — the number of brands endorsed hovers around twelve to fifteen at a time.
Contrast this to Saina Nehwal’s recent hike in her price from Rs. 50 lakhs to a high of a crore and you can see the yawning difference in how other sports stars are treated in this country.
Keep in mind that cricket has just ten Test playing nations. It’s not quite cricket, is it?
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