Sachin Tendulkar ST all set to FRANCHISE Brand Sachin.

Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar is the God of Cricket and with a billion Indian fans and many more around the world, the ‘god’ now wants to go the FRANCHISE route to spread the gospel. Want more energy from a chocolate bar? Buy Sachin Tendulkar’s. Want more glucose from that good ol’ biscuit? Try ‘god’s own brand’.

Want better running shoes that can make you perhaps even fly? Try Adidas’ God, err ST line. Want a better cover drive? Join one of his cricket nurseries that will spring up from Ahmedabad to Adelaide. Want a better orgasm? We don’t know if he can help, but what the heck, if KamaSutra can pay a premium, the Mumbai Bomber might just oblige.

India’s greatest sporting icon is making sure that before he hangs up his boots, Brand Tendulkar is a sustainable multi-million dollar cash cow. Says Venu Nair, president (South Asia), World Sport Group: “Sachin is planning a brand overhaul. We are working with him to chalk out a strategy to make sure that the sustainability curve of his brand doesn’t dip suddenly after he stops playing. We are betting on him for at least the next 10 years.”

Here’s the plan: A mnemonic (ST) has already been designed and can be seen on Tendulkar’s bat. This will slowly be extended to cricket academies, sporting goods, apparel, chocolates, health drinks, energy bars, coaching books and manuals among others. “We are planning four zonal ST branded cricket academies in the next 12 months with one each in Australia and England,” reveals Nair. “In the next five years, we expect the ST brand to be worth $75-100 million.” But wait, the stumps are not drawn yet.

Source:ET 6 Dec 2009, 1945 hrs IST, John Sarkar & Amit Sharma, ET Bureau