Robin Uthappa was Sachin’s choice

The Mukesh Ambani-backed Mumbai franchise didn’t pick up a single home-based player at the auction, but the crack squad that was picked has icon Sachin Tendulkar smiling  in Australia. The city team also wanted a team that would be available on the field when the action starts, rather than players only present on paper but having other commitments once the IPL gets underway.

“We are very happy with the team we picked. We managed to get 80 per cent of the players Sachin Tendulkar wanted. Though we were not allowed to use our mobiles during the auction, Tendulkar clearly told us who he wanted in the team. We will also pick at least three players from the catchment area and that will ensure that budding youngsters from in and around Mumbai get to interact with a legend like Tendulkar,” Kaushik Roy, president brand strategy of Reliance Industries, said.

Justifying the decision to go for Robin Uthappa even as Mumbai-based Rohit Sharma was bought by Hyderabad, R Balachandran, president and chief marketing officer of Reliance Retail, and the man leading RIL’s IPL initiative, said that Mumbai couldn’t afford Uthappa to go into other hands. “Uthappa was the preferred match-winner Tendulkar wanted.

The sequence and choices the auction threw-up limited our flexibility and came in the way of Mumbai acquiring more local players who were on auction.” As far as brand-building and emotional connect with spectators go, Mumbai don’t have to look beyond Tendulkar. “Tendulkar is a brand ambassador for India on and off the field. People have seen him grow from a young boy into the world’s finest batsman and break so many records over the years. He belongs to the people and has grown from a legend into a brand,” Balachandran added.