Boy Scouts

THE SALES pitch was pretty much the same each time. References to their existing starry clientele, assurances to get lucrative endorsements, the potential of no longer worrying about buying cricket gear and of course the promise of turning even him into an overnight star. Rishabh Pant wasn’t getting swayed easily. These were some of the biggest sports management firms wooing him in the days leading up to the U-19 World Cup, but the teenager felt making them wait could be the smartest option. He had a standard reply every time they called though. “Sir, World Cup ke baad dekhenge na (We’ll see after the World Cup),” he would tell them all.

It wasn’t always easy to say no. At 18, he was being offered perks he had never imagined. Some, he was already enjoying. Like his teammates Amandeep Khare and Rahul Batham, he was getting Rs 30,000 from his bat sponsor for every World Cup match he played.

Khare and Batham’s deals were secured by their newly-signed agent Elite Sports, Pant’s was signed through his coach. And he was sharing dressing rooms with the likes of Sarfaraz Khan, who had signed up with PMG six months earlier.

But while they were all scrambling to take a punt on him, Pant was keen on taking a punt of his own on himself. And it took the left-handed opener all of two innings mid-tournament — a 24-ball 78 against Nepal and a 96-ball 111 in the quarterfinals against Namibia — to transform from being just another exciting new stock in the emerging talent market to a multibagger, a stock that’s gained several times its original value.

The same day Pant was scoring his ton, he set off a raging paddle-war in the IPL auction, finally being bought by Delhi Daredevils for a whopping Rs 1.9 crore. The player-management firms found his market price had burgeoned. This Tuesday he inked a five-year contract with PMG to manage all his endorsements, brand associations, corporate profile, patents, digital rights, and PR duties.

However, the Sunil Gavaskar-owned management firm didn’t get Pant on their roster without a fight. As Pant’s coach Tarak Sinha, the legendary Delhi-based coach who’s produced numerous Test cricketers, reveals he had all the head-hunters on the prowl. “There were approaches by the company that manages Virat Kohli (Cornerstone) too. IOS, who manage Raina, too were interested,” he says.

Sinha has a special relationship with Pant, a lower-middle-class boy who left Haridwar to pursue his cricket dreams in Delhi at Sinha’s club. Sinha was against such deals in the not-so-distant past but now believes these are useful financially.

The market’s been crowded this year. In addition to regular players like PMG and Cornerstone, we have IOS, who made their first cricket signing last year in Raina, taking their maiden leap of faith with a teenaged talent in the U-19 captain Ishan Kishan.

Nishant Dayal’s Elite Sports too made a comeback after an eight-year hiatus. And each comes in with their own philosophy but one thing they all do agree upon is about the market risks involved in taking the plunge into the deep end themselves.

“We are like investment bankers ready to put our faith into businesses that we see potential in. Now, five out of the 10 might fail, while two-three might break even. But such are the potential returns that even if one clicks, it makes up for the non-performing assets. We generally keep 30-50 lakh as a signing amount for a young talent,” says PMG COO, Melroy D’Souza, who signed Sarfaraz last July after an IPL.

IOS MD & CEO, Neerav Tomar, though, says his business model is more like private equity players, focused more on zeroing in on a talent that they feel has both the potential as well as the opportunity to make it big. He points to his track record with other sportspersons like Vijender Singh, signed in 2005, and Mary Kom in 2009 — three years before their respective trysts with Olympic glory. That’s the rationale that led him to sign up Ishan Kishan, despite the Jharkhand opener having a lean time with the bat in Bangladesh.

“He was the best performer among the U-19s in the Ranji. He’s not only from Dhoni’s state, he also bats aggressively like him and keeps wickets. Some day, Dhoni will go, and in Ishan we have a kid who is primed to fill into those shoes,” says Tomar.

As for PMG, having someone of Gavaskar’s stature on board to be the final line of dialogue obviously goes a long way convincing young cricketers as well as their parents to come on board.

Player management is a fascinating marketplace, some of its functioning can be a bit hazy – do these talent managers pay a minimum guarantee to the players? An insider, who has handled the day-to-day affairs of many cricketers, illuminates.

“There is nothing called a minimum guarantee. When you hear about contracts being signed for, say Rs 1 crore, it means that the company gets the player sponsorships worth that much from say bat contracts, endorsements, appearances and apparel deals.” The player management companies charge close to 10-15 per cent commission on these contracts—bats and apparel—that they get for their clients. And it’s their responsibility to negotiate hikes and argue pay-cuts with the sponsors, based on a player’s performance or lack of it.
And then there are those high-profile agents who consider a contract with an U-19 cricketer as a curate’s egg—only good in parts, and not worth the risk.

From pioneer to naysayer

INCIDENTALLY THIS time around, Atul Srivastava’s Gaames is not part of the race. Strange, considering that it was he who pioneered the whole ‘pick the bud and wait for them to flower’ strategy in 2008, when he signed a chunk of the U-19 squad, including Virat Kohli. But the one who started it all has become its staunchest critic, insisting that when it comes to this practice, it’s better to have not loved at all, rather than to have loved and lost. He claims to have burnt his hands enough times and is now content with building the profiles of existing clientele—from R Ashwin to Ajinkya Rahane.

“In 2008, I was only two years into the industry and had no choice but to start young to get a breakthrough considering all the big names at that point were signed up. But I realized the danger in it much later,” he recalls. “The requirements and attitude of a player changes dramatically as he starts getting older, and especially after he starts playing for India. Not to forget with each century or five-wicket haul he achieves. It’s not possible to keep up with the changes as a talent manager,” he explains.

Holding on to a player once he starts making the grade up is another challenge wrought with heartbreak, according to Srivastava. He cites the example of how he couldn’t stop Kohli from jumping ship to Cornerstone two years after he started with Gaames. “He had just scored a century in Bangladesh and Bunty approached him in Delhi. And Virat probably decided that signing up with him was the best thing his brand needed. So I didn’t stop him,” says Srivastava.

The discontent, Srivastava says, hits the players as well. He says that the dressing-room proves to be the breeding ground for discontent and disillusionment as most talk revolves around the money being made by each player, and the role played by their respective agent to get them rake the moolah.

He also raises other challenges faced by agents in dealing with players’ whims, fancies and their nakhre. “These are young men who need constant mentoring and at times mollycoddling. If they score a century, you need to be there with them. If they score two ducks, they need you around too,” he says.

However, among the many retrospective raps on the knuckles that he claims have dictated his decision to stay away from the young involves an untoward exchange with one of his early shining lights. “I tried explaining that he needed to change his attitude. He shot back saying, “Who the hell are you to tell me this? Are you my dad?”

Coming back to life
ELITE SPORTS director Dayal too had signed up three players from Kohli’s U-19 World Cup winning squad. Of the lot, only Saurabh Tiwary made the climb up, playing two ODIs for India. But ironically, he is confident that the formula still works, and has signed up three players, Batham, Khare and pacer Shubham Mavi from the present crop.

Dayal also doesn’t agree upon the level of difficulty in terms of holding on to talent that you sign young. It’s all about trust, he insists. He joined hands with Tiwary when he was all of 18, and last week was the best man at the Jharkhand batsman’s wedding.

He also believes that player-agent relationship is a win-win for both the management firm as well as the player. “These are kids from very underprivileged backgrounds and even a decent sponsorship goes a long way in helping them. That’s where we come in. Bat contracts are easier to get, as compared to endorsements. If the former is like a stable salary for the player, the latter is more like a bonus he receives,” he says.

One aspect of identifying a talent that both Srivastava and Dayal agree upon is the cricketers’ x-factor. In a market driven by endorsements, players need to be able to adapt to different demands, including honing their acting skills. His role, Dayal insists, has more to do with ‘supporting’ than ‘managing’.

“See I have signed an all-rounder, fast bowler and a batsman. It’s easiest to get a contract for a batsman but it’s a pacer who has a better chance of playing for India sooner. Mavi has a great physique, is good-looking and can attract brands across the board. That sells,” he says.

There are contradictory views from the industry about when a sports management firm start to break even. Most concur that it doesn’t happen before their client goes all the way and dons the India cap. Dayal doesn’t agree. As someone who’s been around since the first wave in 2008, he says the market has changed drastically of late and that one doesn’t have have to wait that long.

“I have already broken even with whatever I have spent on these boys. Making profits with them is another matter, and they are all long-term prospects that need to be banked on and nurtured,” he says. Along with the bat company bonuses, he even got his three players in Bangladesh a one-lakh backing from StayConnect.

Risk management
It’s not just the agents but cricketers too are taking a wild shot into the dark. The parents and kids can certainly get tempted by not just the massive support-system but also the unexpected income. There have been instances where a delinquent agent gets a player to sign a contract, promising him Rs 5 lakh and a fancy mobile phone. “The contracts that the firms have with brands are totally divorced from those they have with players. And in this case, a firm might have a Rs 25 lakh deal with Nike, but will not even reveal it to the player, and keep him happy with the miniscule amount,” an insider says.

While there are risks for both player managers and cricketers, the signings haven’t ceased. Player who took a punt and a few who took what they got, and agents who take risks and a pioneer who burnt his fingers, have all made the cricketing world all that more complex these days.

Pant’s punt in many ways exemplifies and explains all facets of this game of chance that agents and players – and parents – alike indulge in. If it comes off, the payback is colossal, and if it doesn’t it just ends up as petty stock.