OCTOBER 2013. Sachin Tendulkar was playing his last Ranji Trophy match in Rohtak against Haryana, marking the end of an era in domestic cricket. Around 1,015 km away in Baroda, a teenager, Smriti Mandhana, captaining Maharashtra against Gujarat — that too with Rahul Dravid’s bat — became the first woman in an under-19 tournament to score 200 runs in a day.

July 2017. India had lost the ICC Women’s Cricket World Cup final to England at Lord’s. The disillusioned team returned home, but what stayed with Mandhana was not the dismay. As she later recalled on RCB’s podcast, “People actually came to receive us.” That defeat turned out to be one of the biggest turning points in Indian women’s cricket. Before 2017, women cricketers enjoyed little visibility and limited sponsorships. That changed in just 30 days. By the time the team reached the Lord’s final, Smriti Mandhana, Harmanpreet Kaur, and Mithali Raj catapulted to national prominence. It transformed Mandhana from a talented cricketer into one of the most sought-after faces of Indian cricket. Suddenly, young girls had role models they could identify with.

Social media amplified it. In 2023, Mandhana was the only woman cricketer and Indian among the Top 10 global athletes on a list brought out by Sportico and KORE in terms of sponsorship value on social media. She was in the company of athletes like Serena Williams (tennis), Eileen Gu (freestyle skiing), and Hailie Deegan (motorsports).

The emotional resonance translated into commercial appeal, jacking up Mandhana’s brand value among companies seeking genuine and long-term audience engagement. “Women athletes have an authentic and aspirational connect that fans value. That’s something brands can build around,” says Tuhin Mishra, MD and co-founder, Baseline Ventures, which manages Mandhana exclusively. “Her consistent performances across formats have built lasting credibility — a key trait for long-term endorsements. Her temperament as a captain and a leader for franchise cricket adds to her credibility and strengthens her connect with fans, Mishra adds. “When you build a profile like that for yourself, followers and brands start seeing value not just in your performance but also in your personality.”

Mandhana attributes it to her sport. “Sport teaches you lessons that nothing else in life can,” Mandhana tells Fortune India. Adding more perspective, Mishra says one can easily take the lessons from the field to the boardroom. “Sports teach you how to lead, how to deal with losses, and how to be humble during the highs. Teamwork, adaptability, resilience, and keeping calm under pressure are all handy lessons for any business,” he says.

In 2023, when Royal Challengers Bangalore bought Mandhana for a whopping ₹3.4 crore at the Women’s Premier League auction, she became the most expensive player across women’s cricket leagues globally. The trend continued this year, when RCB retained her for ₹3.5 crore, only months after the Indian women lifted their maiden ICC World Cup, making the left-handed batter the undisputed face of female sports RoI, and the primary choice for Gen Z lifestyle and athletic brands.

The Gen Z appeal

According to Aarthy Sridhar, chief marketing officer, Gulf Oil Lubricants India Ltd, Mandhana connects naturally across demographics, including young consumers, digitally native audiences, women, urban professionals, and emerging mobility users. “One of the most important shifts today is younger consumers increasingly expecting brands to be culturally relevant and reflective of changing lifestyles rather than speaking only through traditional category codes,” she says.

Mishra concurs. Mandhana perfectly embodies the youth of today — powerful, impactful, resilient, and yet humble — a synergy that brands look for while onboarding celebrities, he says. And, WPL has played a huge role in the overall ecosystem of women’s cricket, creating more opportunities, wider visibility, and stronger commercial associations for players. “The rise of women athletes in India is now translating into stronger commercial value,” driven by consistent ICC performances, the growth of franchise cricket, and better storytelling around the game, he adds. “Earlier, sponsorship talks around women athletes involved educating and convincing brands about the value and potential they bring. Today, brands are proactively looking to engage with women athletes, especially cricketers.”

In fact, Mandhana, currently No. 1 in the ICC Women’s ODI Batting Rankings, also provides a higher “conversion-per-follower” ratio than many Bollywood celebrities.

“We saw Smriti not just as a successful athlete, but as a symbol of consistency, composure, and a drive for excellence, which aligns strongly with Gulf’s own brand philosophy,” adds Sridhar. Mandhana is one of the few female celebrity faces in the BFSI sector — traditionally a bastion dominated by the likes of M.S. Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, and Dravid — through endorsements with State Bank of India, Equitas Small Finance Bank, PNB MetLife, and Mastercard. And, she is more than happy to break the glass ceiling. “We are at a time where women in general are being looked at in a similar light and having more, if not equal, opportunities for representation. I’m proud to be among the first few,” she says.

For Mandhana, authenticity and alignment with her natural “personality, journey, and values” are most important while choosing brand partners. Audiences today can easily tell “if it is not a natural alignment”, she says. The brand’s “trust, longevity, and credibility”, and the message they want to communicate are also key.

This vision reflected when she joined hands with her jersey No. 18 counterpart Virat Kohli in the One8 ecosystem of Agilitas Sports. “It is not a conventional endorsement; it is a true co-creation partnership, where her (Mandhana’s) insights as an elite athlete will directly shape how we design, innovate, and build our women’s performance category. She has already been working closely with our product and R&D teams, and that depth of involvement is critical to what we are creating,” Abhishek Ganguly, co-founder and CEO, Agilitas, said at the time of the announcement.

This philosophy of hands-on collaboration and athlete-led innovation reflects how sporting experience translates into effective business leadership. “In sports and business, true leadership is not defined by occasional highs but by delivering dependable performance over time,” says Sridhar. “What makes Smriti’s journey powerful is that it represents sustained evolution rather than overnight success.”

She was an investor in Gurugram-based ayurvedic brand Neem Ayu, which she exited later. She also owns the SM18 Café in her hometown Sangli, Maharashtra. “I’d love to give back to the sport that has given me everything. I’d love to help create more opportunities for young girls and help inspire them to dream big,” she says. This sense of giving back to the community is perhaps what makes brand SM18 priceless.