Rajasthan Royals looks to capitalise on brand Rahul Dravid

New Delhi: The curtains may have come down on 'the Wall' but Rahul Dravid could become even more visible on the small screen in the upcoming IPL season as his team Rajasthan Royals looks to cash in on the emotional quotient post his retirement.

Not only his IPL team, endorsement market experts believe that Dravid could still be a natural choice for many brands thanks to his reliability and integrity.

"We are planning to shoot an advertisement with Rahul Dravid along with other team members of Rajasthan Royals. He is a very good cricketer and an association with him will definitely help us upgrade our brand," Supertech Ltd CMD R K Arora told PTI.

Real estate developer Supertech is one of the sponsors of Rajasthan Royals (RR) IPL team captained by Dravid in the fifth season of the Indian Premier League.

According to RR's Chief Executive Officer Raghu Iyer, Dravid signifies reliability and integrity.

"After the news of his retirement, definitely the emotional quotient has gone up and it will definitely have a positive rub off on Rajasthan Royals as fans would like to see him play cricket. It should augur well for Rajasthan Royals team in this IPL season," Iyer said.

RR's sponsors, including TCS, Ultratech, Kingfisher, Puma and Supertech would want to use his image along with other RR team members in their commercials and promotions, he added.

"They (sponsors) were already planning, but his retirement will surely accentuate that," Iyer added.

In the past Dravid has endorsed a host of brands, including Bank of Baroda, Britannia, Hutch, Reebok, Sansui, Citizen, Pepsi, Karnataka Tourism, Castrol, Max New York Life, Kissan and Gillette.

However, in the last few years he was not seen much active in the endorsement market.

"Cricket is largely about youth and Dravid has not been visible in the brand endorsement market for quite some time now. Till about 7-8 years back, he was the biggest endorser after Sachin Tendulkar," Collage Sports Management Director Latika Khaneja said.

He may be able to make a comeback like Srikkanth, Kapil Dev and Sunil Gavaskar, she said.

"He will be a natural choice for brands which are looking for someone who symbolises strength and trust," Khaneja added.

Ending a glittering 16-year career, Dravid on Friday announced his retirement from international cricket with 13,288 Test runs, the second most aggregate in the game's history.

Dravid's brand endorsements are managed by Twenty First Century Media.

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Greg Chappell is 'mad', says Sourav Ganguly

NEW DELHI: There was no love lost between Sourav Ganguly and the then India coach Greg Chappell, but the former Indian captain has taken their feud a step further by calling the Australian "mad".

Reacting to reports that Chappell would 'demystify' Sachin Tendulkar and other Indian greats for the Australian bowlers during the upcoming Test series, Ganguly said "this was good news" for the Indian team.

"He has been a selector and also the head of their academy (Australian Centre of Excellence in Brisbane) and he has been thrown out from there as well. When he came to India, it was said that his Australian mindset won't work here but he couldn't work in the Australian set up as well," Ganguly said.

The former India skipper said Chappell has proved to be a failure in every coaching-related assignment he has taken up, which is enough proof that the fault lies with him.

"The people should realise that the problem lies with him, he is the one making mistakes. A person can be wrong once but if he commits the same mistake again and loses his job for that, then that man to me is mad," said Ganguly.

"So, I am glad that he is getting attached to the Australian team, it is good news for the Indian team. I am not surprised," he added.

Recalling Chappell's reign, Ganguly said such was the Australian's dominance that the then skipper Rahul Dravid just didn't have the courage to speak up against him.

"Rahul Dravid is the sort of person who wanted everything to be good. He knew that what was happening was wrong but he did not have the guts to revolt and say that it was wrong because after what happened to me during the Zimbabwe tour, any captain would have wanted to maintain peace in the dressing room which is quite right," he told Aaj Tak.

Ganguly, who was instrumental in getting the Aussie batting great the coach's job (2005-07), came under severe criticism from Chappell in his autobiography in which he was called a "panicker". The Australian said he had refused to be Ganguly's "henchman".

Ganguly said Chappell never really had the welfare of Indian cricket on his mind and was too focussed on implementing his plans.

"You can say that Greg Chappell's foresight and thinking was not cricket-oriented. He came here with a personal vendetta and it didn't work with Indian cricket. His mind used to work in a different way. His rule in life was my way or the highway," he said.

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