Dubai: The Sahara Group will continue to enjoy the pride of place on the shirts of Dhoni & Co after retaining the sponsorship rights of the Indian men's cricket team till December 31, 2013.
They beat Bharti Telecom, the only other company in the fray, when bids were opened at the headquarters of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in Mumbai yesterday.
The group had, in a surprising move, pitched in with a figure of Rs30.34 million (Dh2.3 million) per match as against the base price of Rs25 million that the BCCI had agreed upon. Bharti Airtel, the only other company in the fray, put in a bid for Rs20.89 million per match.
"Sahara India Financial Corporation has been awarded the Indian team [Seniors] Title Sponsorship Rights, for the period July 1, 2010 to December 31, 2013," BCCI Secretary N. Srinivasan said in a release. "The BCCI will be paid Rs30.34 million per Test/ODI/T20 International during this period," the statement added.
According to informed sources, the catch of course is the Group will be sponsoring only the men's team even though the invitation for tenders stated all four of them: men, women, India A and Under-19 Indian teams. The other three teams will go without a logo on their shirts for now.
There was much speculation over Sahara's bid before as its chairman Subrata Roy had said the company would re-evaluate its sponsorship after it bagged the Pune IPL franchise.
