Waugh Will Continue As Mrf Ambassador

Australian cricketer Steave Waugh will continue to be the brand ambassador of MRF. This is despite the sacking of Waugh as the caption of Australia's one-day cricket team last month.

MRF's contract with Waugh, when it was signed in November, had come at a time when most sportsmen were finding it difficult to get sponsorships because of the global economic slowdown.

MRF zeroed in on Waugh because he has a clean image and an impressive career record. "He is as popular in Australia as Sachin Tendulkar is in India," said Antony Rodricks, MRF's general manager, advertising.

With the domestic tyre industry reporting stagnant growth for the last couple of years, MRF, like other tyre companies, needs to look outside India, and Australia was identified as a hot market to build volumes in the coming years.

"Faced with a recessionary market in India, our sponsorship of Waugh will help MRF's exports in cricket-playing countries," says Rodricks.

Though MRF would be loosing a bit of Australian mind share in the one-day internationals (ODI) sphere, he says that it does not really affect the company as it can use him in other promotional events.

The deal, said to be one of the most lucrative in international cricket, will earn Waugh $250,000-300,000 a year for three years. In India, the same strategy with Tendulkar has worked very well for MRF.

"Steve Waugh is still our ambassador but there is a clause in the agreement which says that if he does not represent the Australian national team then MRF can withdraw from the contract," Rodricks said. Waugh's deal with MRF is built largely around royalties from sales of the bats.

While Waugh's corporate backers are understood to have rallied around him in the wake of his axing this week, his contract with the Australian Cricket Board will automatically be slashed following his banishment from the one-day game.

Australia is slated to play 18 ODIs till January 2003, while it will play only nine test matches against South Africa, Zimbabwe and England.

Waugh has been also signed up as a brand ambassador for the Australia-based financial services AMP Sanmar Assurance which recently inaugurated its Indian operations from Chennai.

Waugh had said that he would help launch the brand and would also be involved in the marketing activities of the joint venture on an ongoing basis.