Mumbai: The BCCI has started the bidding process for the sponsorship for the Indian cricket team hoping to fetch a minimum of INR 538 crore for the next five years.
Star India are the current sponsors but their contract runs out on March 31.
Team India is expected to play at least 259 matches including 238 bilateral matches and 21 ICC tournament matches in the next five years. The ICC Champions Trophy in June 2017, the 2019 ICC World Cup, the 2020 ICC World T20, and the 2021 ICC Champions Trophy are the major tournaments scheduled till the end of the sponsorship contract.
"Under this Invitation to Tender (ITT), the winning bidder will be granted exclusive Team sponsorship rights (as set out in the sponsor agreement scheduled to this ITT), for all the matches/series (as set out in the sponsor agreement scheduled to this ITT) in which the national team (as set out in the sponsor agreement scheduled to this ITT) participates during the period from 1 April, 2017 till 31 March, 2022 (the “rights period”)," read an excerpt from a notice posted on BCCI's website.
The first time the BCCI had handed a sponsorship contract was in 1993 when ITC (Wills) paid INR 45 crore. In 2002, Sahara India Pariwar took over before current sponsors Star India took over in 2014 for 3 years.
