If reports are to be believed, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has apparently released the tender for the lead sponsorship rights of the national cricket team. The Indian cricket board is reportedly looking at a base price of Rs 350 crore. While the base for the bilateral cricket matches featuring India has been set at Rs 3 crore per match, when it comes to the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) and International Cricket Council (ICC) matches, the BCCI is looking at a minimum price of Rs 1 crore per match.
The claims are being made in a report carried by the Economic Times who have quoted their own sources close to the development. Notably, the report hasn’t independently been verified by ABP Live. BCCI, which is often said to be the richest cricket board in the world, released the tender for these rights on June 14. As per the same report, the tender document will be available for purchase up until June 26.
Interestingly, if this indeed happens to be the price set by the BCCI then this is less than what edtech company Byju’s paid when they were the lead sponsor until March. The former lead sponsor had paid Rs 5.07 crore per match for domestic Team India games and when it was the ICC or the ACC fixtures, the amount was Rs 1.56 crore.
It is also pertinent to note that the BCCI has also banned companies involved in betting, crypto-currency, tobacco and real-money gaming organisations from bidding for these rights.
“BCCI has set a realistic base price for the lead sponsor rights. The ad market is tough, and the new-age sponsors who were spending large sums of money on cricket have cut their marketing budgets drastically due to the funding winter,” an expert was quoted as saying by Economic Times on the condition of anonymity.
The expert also underlines that lead sponsor rights could be a great opportunity for brands to create a long-term value. Prior to Byju’s, Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Oppo had been the jersey sponsor of the Indian team. They had bagged the deal in March 2017 and had made an exit by transferring its sponsorship rights to Byju’s.