NEW DELHI: PepsiCo and Indian cricket’s swashbuckling captain Virat Kohli have parted ways, ending a six-year endorsement association amid concerns expressed by the star about promoting products that go against his ideals of fitness just for money.With this, the beverages and snacks maker, which has banked on household names globally as well as in India to back its mainstay brands, has lost the country’s highest-paid celebrity and its most marketable face.“Yes, the old agreement has ended and both parties have amicably decided not to renew (it) as of now,” a PepsiCo spokesperson confirmed in an email. “We are in constant touch to explore new associations.” An email query sent to Cornerstone, the talent management firm that represents Kohli, elicited no response.Kohli’s endorsement deal with PepsiCo ended on April 30. A fitness enthusiast, he had expressed reservations in an interview about being associated with a sugary drink. The Indian captain commands an endorsement fee of Rs 4.5 crore to Rs 5 crore a day compared with Rs 2.5 crore to Rs 4 crore a day last year.The cricket star was ranked 89th in the Forbes list of the world’s highest-paid athletes in 2017, with earnings of $22 million.The bulk of this — $19 million — comes from endorsements while he earns $3 million from salary. Kohli is the only cricketer on the list of richest athletes.PepsiCo still has associations with personalities from sport and Bollywood including former India captain Sachin Tendulkar, who endorses Quaker Oats, actor Hrithik Roshan, the face of Mountain Dew, and actor Anushka Sharma for Nimbooz masala soda. Chef Vikas Khanna backs Quaker and badminton star PV Sindhu is the face of its sports drink Gatorade. The company ended an 11-year association with cricketer MS Dhoni last year.“Soft drink companies need to step up innovations and launch relevant products since concerns about sugar have come home,” said Shripad Nadkarni, former marketing head of Coca-Cola and cofounder of fresh-food startup Fingerlix. PepsiCo has always banked on celebrities to advertise its brands and at one point had almost the entire cricket team. “Historically, names endorsing colas used to be the ultimate youth icons. But with the number of options of consumer connections increasing dramatically, the share of mass media, too, has come down,” Nadkarni said.PepsiCo was keen to extend the contract since Kohli is the biggest youth icon in the country today, said an official with knowledge of the development. However, the company has been cutting down on spending big money on top-run celebrities, with Chairman D Shivakumar focussing more on below-the-line, region-centred and digital advertising and consumer engagement, the official said.Kohli, 28, said in a television interview in June that when he started his fitness turnaround, it was initially more of a lifestyle thing and he would not want to be a part of something or promote something that goes away from that.“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,” Kohli had said.Kohli is now the face of brands including Audi Colgate and Vicks. He has invested in fitness-associated ventures including the Chisel chain of gyms, tech startup Sports Convo and the Wrogn line of apparel. Consumers are turning away from carbonated soft drinks, with a market value of about Rs 22,000 crore in India, and dumping sugar-laden drinks in favour of flavoured water, functional juice, iced tea and low-sugar drinks made by global and local competitors.Kohli’s brand value was estimated at $92 million by corporate advisory firm Duff & Phelps in an October 2016 report on the country’s biggest celebrities. His valuation increased at least 40% with his captaincy, said an official at a sports management firm that works closely with Kohli’s team.