Indian Cricket Team Captain Virat Kohli is always in the news whether for his love or cricket or other personal reasons. We all know that Virat Kohli recently signed an 8-year endorsement deal with Puma, a German multinational company for Rs. 110 crore. And again, it seems that Virat Kohli has hit a century off the field and this time with Tyre maker MRF.

Kohli has renewed his bat sponsorship deal with MRF for eight years for a whopping amount of Rs. 100 crore. This comes close on the heels of Kohli signing a Rs.110-crore endorsement deal with sports lifestyle brand Puma for a similar period.

The endorsements of Kohli are managed by the agency Cornerstone Sport and Entertainment and its CEO Bunty Sajdeh has asserted that this is a “significant jump” from the previous deal which was signed for Rs. 8 crores for three years but he denied giving any details of the deal.

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“We have renewed the bat sponsorship deal with MRF for eight years. MRF was keen on securing Kohli for a long term. Today, brands are seeing value in securing long-term deals. We also want to show loyalty and commitment to them. And Kohli has got a great rapport with MRF and the money is phenomenal,” Bunty Sajdeh said.

MRF has been associated with many cricketing greats, such as batting legends Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Steve Waugh. Currently, apart from Kohli, it also sponsors Shikhar Dhawan and South African batsman AB de Villiers.

Kohli has been an advertisers’ delight for some time and the 28-year player is endorsing 13 brands at the moment. The 28-year-old right-hand batsman hit the headlines earlier as he entered the 100 crore club in mid 2016.

Ramakrishnan R, the director of sports marketing firm Baseline Ventures, said, “Kohli commands a premium as he is the top order batsman and in the current set up he is one of the three players who play all formats of cricket. However, it has to be a deal with some riders as the deal is on a higher side. It may be if he has committed for three days per year for eight years, which will be around Rs. 4 crores per day.

“Equipment and apparel deals are cash cows for athletes as these are part of them. So these command top price, a case in point being Novak Djokovic’s huge deal with Lacoste,” he added. Baseline Ventures is the firm which manages the endorsements of Indian badminton player P. V. Sindhu.

The deal with MRF makes India’s cricket captain the only athlete in the country to have two `100 crore-plus deals. Sajdeh said that Cornerstone is not looking for any more sponsorships for Kohli and “will look at cutting down on the number of brands he is endorsing.”

This is phenomenal. The first cricketer to attract advertising market big time was Sachin Tendulkar who opened the endorsements market for Indian sportspersons, which was milked later by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and now Kohli is taking it to another level.