Calcutta: There seems to be no end to the big bucks in cricket and it’s widely believed that the Team India captaincy brings with it the unstated perk of climbing the endorsements ladder.

However, the reality is quite removed from the janata’s assumption. A case in point being Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the Twenty20 captain who has also been given the top job in ODIs.

According to management company Gameplan, which handles Dhoni’s commercial interests, there hasn’t really been a queue Tuesday onwards, the day he got promoted.

“Right now, Dhoni’s appointment is only for the 12 ODIs at home (versus Australia and Pakistan). So, while companies have approached us after he got the ODI captaincy too, we haven’t actually been flooded with calls to negotiate fresh deals…

“Generally, people have adopted a wait-and-watch policy… Things could change if Dhoni gets a longer tenure. Also, to an extent, there’s a corelation between individual endorsements and the team’s collective performance,” a spokesman for the management company told The Telegraph on Saturday.

He added: “It’s worth noting that Rahul Dravid’s stock hasn’t fallen because he has chosen not to captain any more…”

Dhoni is No. 3 (among cricketers) in terms of earnings from endorsements — behind numero uno Sachin Tendulkar and Dravid.

Apparently, the difference between Dravid and Dhoni isn’t as much as between Sachin and Dravid.

Sachin, clearly, can’t be touched — not in the near future, at least. By the end of this season, it will be known whether the No.2 position is going to have a new occupant.