Team India stays with Sahara for 80% more

Sahara India Financial Corporation today outbid telecom major Bharti Airtel to retain the title sponsorship rights for the Indian men’s cricket team for the next three and a half years, till 2013.

Under the contract, Sahara will pay the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) a uniform fee of Rs 3.34 crore for each Test match, one-day international (ODI) and T20 match, between July 1, 2010, and December 31, 2013.

A sponsor has the right to require its logo to be displayed by each of the players on the field.

The new sponsorship price per match is over 80 per cent higher than the average fee of Rs 1.86 crore paid per match under the existing contract, which ends in June. Sources said under the existing contract, Sahara was paying Rs 1.9 crore per Test match, Rs 2.09 crore per ODI and Rs 1.57 crore per T20 match.

The agreement is likely to fetch BCCI close to Rs 500 crore, as around 150 such matches would be scheduled in the period.

The Sahara Group’s bid was substantially higher than Bharti Airtel’s offer of Rs 2.89 crore per match. The Sahara bid was 34 per cent higher than the base price fixed by BCCI, of Rs 2.5 crore per match. Sources close to the deal say Sahara might also bring in another partner to share the sponsorship rights, which is permitted by BCCI.

Electronics giant Videocon, Reliance ADAG, Monnet Ispat, Nimbus and Percept had also purchased bidding documents for securing the sponsorship rights. However, they all finally decided not to do so, leaving only Sahara and Bharti Airtel in the fray. The steep base price per match, industry sources said, deterred the players from going ahead.

Sahara had spent around Rs 430 crore for title sponsorship rights for the men’s team for a four-year period that ended last December. It involved over 200 matches. BCCI gave them a six-month extension when there were no takers for its Rs 3 crore per match demand when the rights came for rebidding last December. As it happens, Sahara has now paid much more than that.

Sahara has been the official sponsor of the team since 2000. For a while in the 1990s, it was ITC which was the sponsor; however, that ended after it was decided not to allow a tobacco company to sponsor a sports team or event. After a hiatus, when the rights were rebid in 2000, Sahara came in. It had also recently secured the Pune team franchise in the Indian Premier League’s Twenty20 cricket tournament, paying $370 million (Rs 1,720 crore) for a 10-year period.