Is Mohammed Siraj a brand good enough for brands?

Mohammed Siraj’s biggest weapon in his success in England has been his infinite self-belief. That, combined with ruggedness, hardiness, indefatigable energy and a never-say-die attitude set him apart both from his peers and competitors. The Japanese call this spirit Konjo.

Mohammed Siraj received high praise also because he has “debunked forever this business of workload”, as India batting great Sunil Gavaskar succinctly put it, questioning the very concept by asserting that playing for the country should be enough to “forget the aches”, something that soldiers guarding the nation do routinely. Siraj played all five Tests of the just-concluded drawn series against England and bowled 185.3 overs in total, picking up 23 wickets in the outing. Pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah, however, was available for only three of the games, skipping the must-win fifth Test at The Oval as part of his “workload management”.

We at the Indian Institute of Human Brands (IIHB) ran a small sample tele-survey to understand how consumers – mostly cricket fans – see Brand Mohammed Siraj. 227 respondents, 18-35 years, mostly male in Tier 2 &3 cities. The IIHB Human Brand study, TIARA, normally uses an amalgam of 64 attributes to fully understand all dimensions of a celebrity brand. But for Siraj, the attribute list was pruned as the questions were administered on WhatsApp + Mobile. 

Fiery (87%) was Siraj’s top attribute. Fierce (62%) was also among Siraj’s top descriptors. Fast (77%), Energetic (72%), Aggressive (71%), Relentless (66%), Dynamic (66%), Determined (61%) and Thrilling (48%) best described the swing bowler to respondents reached by the researchers. Interestingly, he also scored very high on Self-less, Self-driven and Patriotic. So, Brand Siraj is both admired, and well loved.

Traditionally, bowlers have never really done well with brands despite superlative match winning performances and tour-winning stats. The famous spinners – Bishan Bedi, Chandra, Venkataraghavan and Erapalli Prassana never made any endorsement monies because they preceded the commercial era of cricket. Kapil Dev was the first to encash his popularity and fame – but then he was also a very good and impactful batsman. Most importantly, a World Cup winning captain too. Brands queued up outside his front-door. But then Anil Kumble, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Javagal Srinath, Ishant Sharma and even Ravindra Jadeja hardly got any visibility with brands. Only Jasprit Bumrah has had some recent success with brand endorsements of late with Dream11, ASICS, OnePlus, BharatPe, Zaggle, BOAT, Royal Stag, American Pistachios, and Skechers. He also has endorsement deals with clothing label Twills and the footwear brand Unix. The moot question is whether Mohammed Siraj too can get into the consideration set of brands.

We personally made calls to 14 advertisers yesterday – all of them are large enough, and all currently use some or the other celebrity. Ad verbatims –

“Nice guy. Very hardworking. Very committed”.

“Grit. Guts. Gumption”.

“He has such intensity. And such determination. I never though we would win from where we were”.

“Loved his never-say-die attitude. The match was a no-goner but for his fierce determination”.

“No elitist b**l s**t about workload management. He just bowled and bowled and bowled, The wickets came because of his tireless efforts”.

But then with all the praise came the usual ifs-and-buts.

“He’s too earthy for our brand”. Read lacks sophistication.

“At 31 he doesn’t have a long runway ahead, especially as a fast bowler”. Read he’s already close to his best-before date. Won’t be able to use him for long.

“Hardworking yes. Tenacious yes. But he doesn’t have the sex, the swag and the style that a Virat Kohli brings to the brand”. Hmmm down-market.

“Could check him out for some regional campaigns”. Just good enough for the crumbs. 

“We are planning to use him for some pace-bowling camps for youngsters”. Sorry, can’t risk him in ATL.

Verdict for Mohammed Siraj? Yes, we love you. But business is business – there a Bumrah, despite chickening out of the crucial fifth Test, would still be preferred as a brand ambassador.

Well, at least there was a consolation prize – Mohammed Siraj was featured and feted in Amul’s topical cartoon today.

Siraj would surely have preferred cash over cartoon but as they would say back home in Punjab, chalo koi nahi!