Star beats Sahara to win logo sponsorship rights for Indian cricket team

NEW DELHI: Star India has won the bid for Indian cricket team’s logo sponsorship rights from 2014 to 2017 for Rs 1.92 crore a match, a drop of 40% from Rs 3.34 crore a match that the current sponsor Sahara group is paying.

Sahara, which had decided not to renew its sponsorship contract with the Indian cricket board had on Saturday picked up the tender documents alongside others like Sony, Games Unlimited, UB Group, Airtel and WSG.

According to source close to the BCCI, who did not wish to be named, of the seven who had bought the tender document, only Sahara and Star put in their bids for the logo rights.

A spokesperson for Star confirmed that they had won the bid.

The sponsorship that will include all BCCI, ACC and ICC events will span from January 1, 2014 to March 31, 2017.

Considering the drop in valuation in the bid for the title sponsorship rights in October this year, BCCI had reduced the base price for the 'logo rights' - where the brand gets visibility on the blue jerseys of Indian team members – from Rs 2.5 crore per match in 2010 to 1.5 crore this time.

The 'title sponsorship' for 13 matches to be played in India from October 2013 to March 2014 was also won by Star India for Rs 2 crore per match, which was the base price, much lower than Rs 3.33 crore that the previous sponsor Airtel had paid.