Virat Kohli of today is like Sachin Tendulkar of 20 years ago, feels Jatin Paranjape

Virat Kohli today is what Sachin Tendulkar was about 20 years ago, according to Jatin Paranjape, former India and Mumbai left-handed batsman and a close friend of the legendary cricketer who turned 43 on Sunday.

Kohli is the poster boy of today, his face is on billboards almost in every street and he is in almost every other TV commercial. He was ranked seventh in 2015 Forbes India Celebrity 100 list with yearly earnings of Rs.104.78 crore.

The seeds for such revenues that cricketers earn today were sown by Tendulkar in the 1990s. Speaking at the Cricket Club of India’s Legends Club gathering to mark Tendulkar’s birthday, Paranjape dwelt upon Tendulkar “as a piece in the entire commercial juggernaut that cricket has become now”.

“Michael Jordan made basketball the commercial juggernaut that it is today. Kids were inspired by him, they wanted to wear the same shoes that Jordan wore. They followed the same team that Jordan played for. He gave them the ability to dream. He was the inspiring force behind sport in America,” the 44-year-old Paranjape, currently general manager, cricket, and sports marketing head for Nike (India), said.

“In music business, till Beatles was available on iTunes, the media management software created by Apple was a very modest success. The day Apple and Beatles management cracked that deal, the day Beatles was made available on iTunes, iTunes went through the roof. Similarly, iPhone made internet and e-commerce today, giving you the ability to tap and buy products. These are the enablers. There’s one spark that lights up everything and that was Sachin for cricket,” Paranjape said.

“Before Desert Storm of 1998, cricket was a modest revenue earner globally. Sachin took that into a different realm altogether. Because, somewhere along the line, the company that owned the broadcast rights for BCCI, saw what Sachin’ two innings in Sharjah did for the public at large. More cameras came, TV broadcast became better, there were better commentators, and it gave spectators a better feel for the game. That, in turn, popularised the game more, more advertisers came in. If there was no Sachin in that Indian team to beat Australia singlehandedly, cricket would not have seen the kind of traction that it has today.

“If Sachin was not in the first Mumbai Indians’ team, it is like chalk and cheese. These kinds of moments inspire you and me in our daily life. I see that in Virat Kohli today. Virat inspires me a lot today. Virat makes me plan my day better, be more determined. Sachin did that when I shared the dressing room with him. Sachin has done that to the Anjali Vedpathaks, the Saina Nehwals and the Sania Mirzas. Sachin has given them the strength to dare to dream.”

Tendulkar’s influence on sportspersons has been tremendous. He has inspired a generation of youngsters to play cricket for a living. It is no secret that Kohli took to cricket only because of Tendulkar. Paranjape said: “What was the need for Sachin to spend five days, 10 sessions with Virat Kohli last year at Mumbai Cricket Association’s BKC complex long after he has hung up his boots? Sachin cared for his team-mates, he cared very deeply for Mumbai, for India and for sport in general. Behind all those performances and record-breaking feats is a genuine heart that beats for Mumbai, India and sport in general.”

Paranjape and Tendulkar go a long way. Their birthdays are one week apart. The former is elder by one year and one week. They played age-group cricket together. They attended Mumbai under-15 selection trials together and did not make the final list in their first year, 1984, though they made it to the team the next year.

Reminiscing their U-15 and U-17 days together for Mumbai, Paranjape said: “Sachin was distraught after making 80 in a match for Mumbai while Vinod Kambli, a slaughterer of domestic attack, scored 351. He was upset that he could not convert the starts into big scores. I told him that ‘with whatever little cricket I know and have seen of you, you are going to be the best player one day’. I even told him to give me his autograph to prove that point, and it was 12.30 or 1 past midnight. He wrote ‘My name is Sachin Tendulkar’ and signed below it. I made sure that it was his first ever autograph that he has signed.”

Paranjape, a left-handed batsman who played four ODIs for India in 1998 besides 62 first-class games and scored close to 4,000 runs with 13 hundreds and an average of 46.09, said Tendulkar “had cricket right at the top of everything”.

Paranjape’s career with Mumbai coincided with Tendulkar’s growing status in international cricket. Yet, in the successful decade for Mumbai cricket in 1990s, Paranjape said: “Sachin held together a very strong Mumbai unit.

He led the team positively and led Mumbai with aplomb. He valued small contributions to the team’s cause and made it a point to mention them in team meetings. Even though he did not play much for Mumbai as he was busy with international commitments, we used to look forward to him coming to Mumbai Ranji Trophy team for the odd match here and there.

“He’d pull stuff from India games and say why not try that in a similar situation that Mumbai was facing. He ingrained into the team the ‘let’s play hard’ philosophy.”