How Prithvi Shaw’s maiden Test hundred put Swiggy, FreeCharge into trouble

Prithvi Shaw took off his Test career with a bang as he registered a hundred on Test debut in the first Test between India and West Indies in Rajkot.

While there was just positivity in Rajkot, there were negative vibes of the brutal world of brand preservation coming Prithvi’s way.

Baseline Ventures, the sports marketing firm which manages Shaw’s commercial interests, have sent legal notices to Swiggy and FreeCharge – a food delivery and e-commerce website, respectively – on charges of using Shaw’s name without its authorisation in tweets and also sought Rs 1 crore in compensation from each of them.

Here are the tweets:
 

Shaw became the youngest Indian to score a century in his debut Test and the cricketing world was not one bit surprised at the 18-year-old cricketer announced himself in the big stage of international cricket.

“This is not only unfair to the player’s achievements but also to other genuine current sponsors and potential sponsors of Prithvi who pay to associate and play by the rule books. We will be taking legal recourse against other firms too, who have resorted to similar ambush marketing communications,” Tuhin Mishra, MD of Baseline Ventures was quoted as saying by a media organisation.

It was also revealed that Swiggy has confirmed that they have received a legal notice from Shaw’s marketing firm and they said that their legal department was dealing with it.

Shaw signed a multi-year deal with Baseline Ventures last year and the firm currently manages the player’s commercial interests.