Sachin to be a mentor

In a country like India where cricket is considered to be a religion Sachin is undoubtedly the God. He carries millions of hearts to the field. But this time round, he wants to do things a bit differently. Sachin Tendulkar, who is a part of Mukesh Ambani's Mumbai team for IPL, will be active off the field, playing a strategic role for the $111.9-million Mumbai team. It has been told that Sachin will be the consultant and the key thinker on team strategies and the operational functioning of the Mumbai team. It's still unclear whether Sachin will take the field. But if industry sources are to be believed, Sachin may become the non-playing captain of Mumbai.

Sources reveal the fact that Sachin has been in talks with Mukesh and his team for a while now, and is giving crucial inputs on how the Mumbai brand should be built.The IPL panel has given Sachin an Icon Player status and will be paying him 15% more than the top player of the Mumbai T-20 team. Sachin, apart from his player fees, will also be given some kind of equity or at least a profit-sharing in the team.

The other icons are, of course, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Sourav Ganguly who will be representing Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkata, respectively. Needless to say that Sachin will also be the face and the champion mascot of the Mumbai team, and will be the brand ambassador across all advertising and marketing promotions that will come up closer to the matches. The rationale here's simple: First, Brand Sachin will lend a lot of credibility to the Mumbai team. Secondly, the valuation of the team will shoot up instantly and thirdly, Mukesh Ambani would get the help of Sachin to line in other cricket stars