Indian captain Virat Kohli has turned down a multi-crore offer to endorse a soft drink, according to a report in The Hindu on Thursday.
The report stated that the Indian captain, who is known to enjoy a punishing fitness regime, said no to the offer as he did not drink aerated drinks. Earlier in a cricketing context, the Indian captain had said that he never asked his teammates to do something which he could not do himself.
Kohli has endorsed soft-drink major Pepsi in the past but earlier in an interview with Mint in June, he had given a hint about dropping this association after making a turnaround in his fitness regime.
“We are actually on the cusp of making some big changes on that front,” he had said then. “Things that I’ve endorsed in the past, I won’t take names, but something that I feel that I don’t connect to anymore. If I myself won’t consume such things, I won’t urge others to consume it just because I’m getting money out of it.”
Apart from Kohli, the only other notable Indian sportsperson who had declined to endorse was soft drinks was the country’s chief badminton coach Pullela Gopichand. After winning the prestigious All England Open in 2001, Gopichand had revealed that he had turned down a soft-drink endorsement as he did not want to encourage others to drink something he did not drink himself.
Do you prefer your favourite sports stories delivered straight to your inbox every weekday? We have got you covered. Subscribe to The Field’s newsletter.