The phrase in fashion these days in India and world cricket is “image rights”. At the height of his negotiations with Manchester United last year, David Beckham, once famously said: “It’s not the salary that’s a problem, it just the image rights that needed a little perking.”

Man U, the world’s richest football club, took all of eight months before the charismatic footballer signed a three-year contract. There was no disagreement on what he was to be paid for his skills. The problem was “image rights”.

Even as we grapple with the strong possibility of an Indian cricket team without Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid or Saurav Ganguly, it is important to explain what “image rights” are and what they mean for players.

Over the past few weeks sports news has focussed almost exclusively on two areas: the exploits of the three top stars who have played some of the best innings of their careers and the controversy over the ICC’s contract with Global Cricket Corporation, now largely owned by News Corp of Rupert Murdoch. The contract prevents players from endorsing rival products of any sponsors other than official sponsors one month before and one month after the event.

So, what are “image rights” and how do they work? A related question is how much do the players stand to lose by sacrificing their “image rights”?

To answer these questions, we will take the example of two of the biggest icons in world sport today: Tendulkar and Beckham.

Image rights means that a player, like an entertainer, has control over how his name and image are commercially exploited. Beckham’s face and name sell products ranging from hair lotion to sun glasses to t-shirts to football shoes to video games and, the latest, his recorded voice — which is likely to be used by Vodafone. Similarly, Tendulkar’s face and name are used to sell cars, two-wheelers, credit cards, soft drinks, apparel and so on. Logically, they have the right to the earnings from their names and faces. ICC’s latest contract and the signing away off those rights by the BCCI, seeks to limit that. There lies the problem.

Football solved the problem by factoring image rights into a player’s contract, ensuring his percentage from the money being made by the team from the player’s image.

At an individual level, many people who follow the exploits of Beckham or Tendulkar also feel the urge to buy a t-shirt carrying their image or drive the car their icons drive. They want the same perfume, the same sunglasses and the same music system. Knowing that the Tendulkar or Beckham Effect can help them sell more, the manufacturers pay them huge sums.

The problem arose when certain boards, like the Indian board, signed away these rights without checking back with the players. While a majority of the players stand to lose little or nothing, big stars like Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly could lose a packet.

What did Beckham sell when he sold his image rights to the club? He gave his club exclusive rights to use his image only in joint deals like team sponsorships and joint promotions. Man U or England cannot use Beckham’s image alone; it has to be accompanied by some less well-known players. Otherwise, Man U or England would simply use their biggest names and that, in turn, would hurt these very players while negotiating with individual sponsors.

So, if an event or a team is to be promoted, it has to be done jointly, but before that the cricketers must be paid something for it. They can then be jointly used to promote the event, which, in turn, seeks to promote the official sponsor. Meanwhile, the player individually promotes whichever product he wishes to.

How much do the players make from their image? Beckham reportedly signed up for £70,000 a week — about $5.8 million annually — for playing football. In addition, he signed up for about £25,000 a week — about $2 million annually — for his image rights. Individually, he makes about $4.5 million a year from his personal sponsors for products like hair lotion, Police sun glasses, Pepsi, Vodafone, and so on.

So, he gets paid $5.8 million a year for football skills and about $6.5 million to $7 million for his image. Deduction: his image is more valuable than his skills.

Coming to Tendulkar, there is no fixed payment structure in Indian cricket. For the present, Tendulkar gets Rs 2.25 lakh for each one-day international and there are about 30 of them in a year. Besides, in any year there are 10 to 12 test matches, for which the top players get Rs 2.5 lakh each. That works out to about Rs 1 crore, about $200,000. Add another 20 per cent to 25 per cent of that as guarantee fee for foreign tours and other allowances. That brings us to a figure of $250,000 earned by playing on the field by a player like Tendulkar.

Now a look at his endorsement money. WorldTel promised him a figure of $18 million for five years, which means an average of $3.6 million a year. That means Tendulkar’s image is almost 15 times more valuable than his skills.

In the case of a lesser player like Dravid or Ganguly, their playing fees would be almost the same as Tendulkar, but their endorsement earnings would be about $750,000 to $1 million — which is between Rs 3.75 crore and Rs 5 crore. Their image still gets them three to four times more than playing cricket does. Now, didn’t somebody once say: “My face is my fortune.”

(V Krishnaswamy is writing a fortnightly column on the business of sport)