Jatin Paranjpe, the former Sports Marketing head of Nike, has revealed what led to the franchise signing a young Virat Kohli. Paranjpe, who played four ODIs for India in 1998, described that he’d been scouting the then-promising youngster ahead of the 2008 Under-19 World Cup and was impressed by what he saw of young Kohli.
Back then, Nike used to deal with most sports accessories, and the idea of producing a bat was in the works. Paranjpe, who served at the post from 2006 to 2012, spotted Kohli’s ‘hunger and confidence’ and it was enough to convince him of getting the youngster on board.
“Through my coaches’ network, I started going to watch a lot of matches, and Virat was one of them in an India U-19 camp ahead of the 2008 U-19 World Cup. I saw that he had something in his eyes - a hunger, a confidence,” Paranjpe told Gaurav Kapur on his YouTube Show 22 Yarns. “Virat Kohli was my very first signing, and the next day, I signed Tanmay Srivastav.”
Paranjpe explained why he was on the lookout for a shining star, saying Nike only had S Sreesanth with them and given the mercurial nature of the fast bowler, Paranjpe revealed he was on the edge.
{{/usCountry}}Paranjpe explained why he was on the lookout for a shining star, saying Nike only had S Sreesanth with them and given the mercurial nature of the fast bowler, Paranjpe revealed he was on the edge.
{{/usCountry}}“Nike had only Sreesanth as a cricket athlete and at that time, there wasn’t the thought for a Nike bat,” he said. “It was just footwear, shoes, etc. And we had a roster that had only S Sreesanth written on it. That is an extremely dangerous situation to be in and that scared the daylights out of me.”
Paranjpe’s assessment regarding Kohli was spot on. Shortly after leading India to the Under-19 World Cup win in 2008, Kohli signed his first contract, with Nike after sporting the BDM logo in his first few India games. Kohli sported the Nike logo on his bat for many years, until he was sued by the brand for a breach of contract.