Rohit Sharma sets foot in cricket metaverse with new NFT collection

The memorabilia will be from some of his hundreds, the ICC Golden Bat from the 2019 ICC World Cup, or the ball used to pick his first IPL hat-trick for Deccan Chargers in 2009 against Mumbai Indians, will surely make for some amazing NFT’s.

Nikhil Bardia, head of sponsorship sales and talent, RISE Worldwide, added, “This gives Rohit’s fans a chance to own a piece of history from his personal collection.”

“The team is building the next-generation of consumer experiences, and I cannot wait to check out the super-cool HitMan NFTs and 2D/3D avatars that they will be dropping in the months ahead,” said Sharma. He is managed by RISE Worldwide – a Reliance Industries’ investment in sports in India.

Last month, the company had announced a $17.4 million in seed funding from Tiger Global, Coatue, Sequoia Capital India, Dapper Labs, and others.

Anshum Bhambri, the company’s CEO, said, “We view marquee athletes as artists who create their best moments of art on the field of play. We are very excited to partner with Rohit Sharma, a pure cricketing genius, to build the new paradigm of engagement between the athlete and the fan.”

FanCraze has a three-year deal with the International Cricket Council (ICC) for the rights to its catalogue of video and audio clips, which goes back to 1975. It is creating NFTs linked to specific clips, which cricket fans will be able to buy in packs and trade on a secondary market.

Each NFT will come with meta-data embedded – perhaps related to the number of runs the player in the clip has scored, or the wickets taken, say – which will form the basis for a series of gamified apps that the company plans to launch. NFT owners will be able to take part in these apps while planning their strategies on the basis of the strengths of their collections.