The Subroto Roy-headed industrial conglomerate will pay Rs3.34 crore per international match to have their logo displayed on the Team India jersey.
Sahara and Indian cricket, it seems, are inseparable, at least for another three-and-a-half years.
The Sahara logo will continue to occupy the prime spot on Team India jerseys. On Monday, the company sealed a deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India by putting up an unexpectedly high bid of Rs3.34 crore per match to retain the sponsorship rights.
The bid amount is about 67 per cent more than the current price it pays for an ODI (Rs2 crore) and 70 per cent (Rs1.9 crore) more for a Test. It is also more than double the price (Rs1.5 crore) for a Twenty20 International. This time it will pay a uniform Rs3.34 for all international matches.
The deal is up to December 31, 2013, by when the Sahara will have paid about Rs490 crore (depending on the number of matches India play) for about 100 ODIs, 38 Tests and 10 T20Is. For the last four-and-a-half years, Sahara had paid up to Rs430 crore.
Sahara’s bid is about Rs45 lakh more than the amount quoted by Bharti Airtel, the only other company in fray for the sponsorship rights. Airtel bid was for Rs2.89 crore.
“We’re proud to be associated with Team India,” said Abhijit Sarkar, a key official of Sahara. Incidentally, Sahara did not put in a bid when the BCCI had invited tenders quoting a minimum base price of Rs3 crore per match in December last year.
No one had actually made a bid and the process was aborted and the BCCI made an interim deal up to June 30 after its previous deal had ended in December 31. Market sources say the current deal is a good one considering the aborted process and the number of parties in contention.
However, there were no takers for the sponsorship rights for India A, India Junior and India women’s teams. The BCCI had fixed Rs25 lakh for the first two teams and Rs10 lakh for the third one.
The BCCI had invited bids for the Indian men, women, India A and India Jr squads last Monday. Initially there were four other companies, including Anil Ambani’s ADAG, were in fray. But only Sahara and Airtel submitted the mandatory Rs50 crore guarantee by Saturday evening.
The two submitted their bid amount on Monday morning and the Board announced the winner after its marketing committee meeting.
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