Mumbai : It will be Micromax in place of Star India to sponsor the Indian Cricket Team for next year’s cricket season as Micromax has won the Board of Control for Cricket in India’s title sponsorship rights for the 2014-2015 season. The home series against the West Indies in October and November will be the first opportunity for the mobile handset makers.
Micromax will also be entitled to title rights for five major domestic tournaments, The title sponsorship also extends to domestic series, including the Irani Cup, the Duleep Trophy, the Ranji Trophy, the Vijay Hazare Trophy, the Deodhar Trophy and the Raj Singh Dungarpur Trophy.
The marketing committee of the BCCI met in Mumbai on Thursday to receive the bids made for title sponsorship of international series and domestic tournaments to be played in India in the 2014-15 season. Micromax Informatics Ltd won the bid for a fee of INR 18,01,80,000. They were the only bidders, showing that the BCCI once again failed to attract bidders.
STAR India were the lone bidders for the 2013-14 season. Last year, STAR had won the BCCI rights at the base price of Rs 2 crore per international match. Sachin Tendulkar had retired during the season.
“The BCCI welcomes Micromax Informatics Ltd as a partner for the 2014-15 season. The forthcoming series between India and the West Indies will feature some exciting cricket. There will be plenty of action in the domestic competitions as well. We have no doubt that it will be a fruitful association,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel.
BCCI also plans to rollout a long term contract after fixing the series schedule of Indian team for the period 2016 to 2021, while speaking on this Patel added, “Given the economic conditions and the fact that the sponsorship rights period is short, we are happy to have Micromax on board. Once we sign on the dotted line for the series fixtures for the 2016-21 period, we will release ITTs (invitations to tender) for a longer duration.”
It seems the timing of invite for bidding has played a spoil sport as the look worm response to the tender might be attributed to the pathetic performance of Team India in the ongoing England Tour.
