IPL Moneyball: Virat kohli 3rd Cricketer to enter 100 Cr Club

Virat Kohli has completed a unique hat-trick on his commercial scorecard. Much before even the date or place is decided where the first ball of the Indian Premier League Season 2018 will be bowled, the Don of Delhi – both on the cricket and brand pitches – has added another ₹ 100 crore leaf to the glorious history of the cash-rich league.

It is a rare hat-trick CEOs and COOs in the brand world and the best of bradn icon will dream and aspire for. Indian Premier League will now be the third ₹ 100 crore brand in the commercial scorebook of Kohli.

India’s leading brand icon has for long left behind celebrated Bollywood brands Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan and fellow cricket celebrities Sachin Tendulkar and MS Dhoni far behind. He was the first to ink a ₹ 100 crore endorsement deal with a single brand – a multi-year contract with German apparel and footwear brand Puma. Next at the peak of mountain came ₹ 100 crore endorsement singing with India’s leading tyre brand MRF. And now his career aggregate of ₹ 100 crore IPL salaries to complete the hat-trick of brands for the Boss of Brands.

With the completion of the Indian Player League Season 12 retention process on last Friday, Kohli joined Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Rohit Sharma as the only ₹ 100 crore IPL icon. Dhoni tops the table with ₹122.84 crore salary purse, while Rohit in the second position has aggregated ₹116.60 crore in his IPL salary contracts. The extension of ₹ 17 crore deal with the Royal Challengers Bangalore takes Kohli’s aggregate IPL career salary deals to ₹ 109.20 crore.

For records Virat is the third to enter IPL’s club ₹ 100 crore. But he just like his batting prowess is making big strikes to demolish financial records in cricket world’s most precious and commercially most prestigious event.

For the first three years, Kohli has been among the lowest pedestal of a mere ₹ 12 lakh annual salary. And now, for the second successive year he is the highest paid following his ₹17 crore retention by the RCB. More than the IPL trend-setter Dhoni.

Among other firsts and rarities in Kohli’s IPL sojourn, the role model for a generation has never ever gone under the hammer at the player auction as he is set to be the only player to have all the 12 seasons with a single franchisee – Royal Challengers Bangalore.