Reports | BCCI to ārelookā kit sponsorship deal after awarding rights to MPL
After industry outrages over BCCI awarding the Indian team kit sponsorship deal to Mobile Premier League without due course of action, BCCI decided to have a relook at the deal. Earlier, Puma and Adidas didnāt fill the bid after asking a reduction of the original Nike price by one-third.
Yesterday, Sportstar reported that the BCCI has finally managed to find a bidder for the apparel rights of the Indian cricket team, albeit with a lower price than what they got in the previous four-year-deal from Nike. In 2016, Nike had signed a fresh five-year deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India during which they paid Rs 370 crore from with a Rs 30 crore royalty.
It was a deviation from the norm as Mobile Premier League (MPL) taking over the rights was a first in Indian cricket where a brand not associated with sporting apparel owned the rights to Indian cricketās jerseys across formats and across groups. In terms of that, industry resources, as reported by ToI, lashed out at BCCI for the lack of transparency and called for a fair deal which the BCCI is reportedly contemplating on.
ToI reported that companies who did not come to the bidding table for lack of clarity will be writing to the BCCI, seeking how the sudden change in the bid was implemented without keeping the industry in the notice. There is also a direct conflict according to the ITT guidelines because MPL is a fantasy gaming platform operated by Bangalore-based company Galactus Funware Technology Pvt Ltd which is a rival of other BCCI partners.
The BCCI havenāt released the MPL as the official partner yet and are expected to take a call on it soon.