According to the latest reports of Insidesports.co, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had almost finalized a ₹11 crore deal with Goibibo.com. The deal had to be called off as RCB could not meet the travel portal’s primary requirement due to their skipper Virat Kohli.

Over the years, IPL franchises have provided players to the team sponsors and co-sponsors so that they could do justice to the massive amount spent on the deal. That’s we see a Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and other franchise teammates breaking houses with their shots or Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle and Shane Watson riding bicycles in RCB outfits.

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As a part of the deal, Goibibo.com had asked for brand activation with RCB captain Kohli. He had no objections but he was not ready to share the commercial space with any other celebrity. The travel portal wanted their brand ambassador Deepika Padukone to feature in their IPL activation creatives with the RCB players and Virat was not willing for the same. Goibibo.com were unwilling to proceed without their brand ambassador and opted out of the deal.

The report states: “The RCB skipper, in general, is not opposed to working with other celebrities professionally. However, in the present case, the demand was ‘beyond the terms of his IPL contract’.”

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However, an RCB source deprived of Kohli’s involvement and stated the team got a better offer and decided to proceed with that. India’s national squad, which is sponsored by OPPO mobiles, while Deepika is a brand ambassador of the same brand. Deepika, a superstar herself, is a Bangalore girl and wanted to associate with her city’s IPL team. She has been a brand ambassador for RCB in the team’s early days.

Kohli’s Bollywood links are well known. He married Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma in a lavish setting in Italy in December 2017.