Sahara bags Team India sponsorship rights

Sahara Group outbid telecom giants Bharti Airtel to retain the sponsorship rights of the Indian men's cricket team till the end of 2013.

The Subrato Roy-headed industrial conglomerate will pay Rs 3.34 crore per international match to have their logo displayed on the Team India jersey.

"Sahara India Financial Corporation has been awarded the Indian team (Seniors) Title Sponsorship Rights, for the period 1 July 2010 to 31 December 2013," BCCI Secretary N Srinivasan said in a statement.

"The BCCI will be paid Rs. 3.34 crore per Test/ODI/T20 International during this period," the statement added.

Sahara Group's original contract with the BCCI expired last year.

The company spent Rs 400 crore over a four-year period for team sponsorship.

They came to the BCCI's rescue when no bids were received for the team sponsorship six months ago and continued their support for the period.

u00a0Their renewed contract was to expire next month.

Under the existing contract, Sahara was paying Rs 1.9 crore per Test, Rs 2.08 crore per ODI and and Rs 1.56 crore per Twenty20 International, the BCCI said.

The group was locked in a two-way race for the renewed rights with Bharti Airtel.

The two were the only firms left in the fray, although four others including electronic giants Videocon, had also purchased the bid form.

Sahara and Airtel submitted the requisite security deposit of Rs 50 crore along with the form at the end of deadline while the other firms excused themselves from the race due to the steep base price of Rs 2.5 crore per match.

The Cricket Board had published a tender notice calling for bids for the Indian men's team, women's team, India A squad and the under 19 squad and the deadline to submit security deposit ended yesterday.

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