Team India jersey logo up for grabs

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has put Twenty20 on a par with ODIs and Tests while setting the reserve price for the

bidding of Team India's logo sponsorship. Sources said the board is asking for a minimum reserve price of Rs 3 crore for each Test, ODI or Twenty20 game, which highlights the growing commercial value of T20 matches. Four years ago, the base price for an ODI match was Rs 90 lakh and Rs 1 crore for a Test. During that time, T20 didn't even have a market. But in the last two-and-half years, the valuation of logo sponsorship in a T20 game has exceeded those of Tests and ODIs. In the new deal, sources said, BCCI is offering 170 international matches for next four years starting from January 1, 2009 and expecting around Rs 800 crore. Sahara India, whose logo Indian teams have been sporting for 10 years, has paid a little more than Rs 400 crore in the last four years. The huge increase in logo sponsorship money could put bidders in a tizzy. It has already put Sahara in two minds. Sahara's spokesperson Avijit Sarkar, when asked if his company would bid again, said: "We have not decided yet." In fact, if the deal happens, it could be worth more than Manchester United's T-shirt logo deal which is pegged at around Rs 650 crore for four years. At present, Sahara is paying around Rs 2 crore each for an ODI and a Test match and Rs 1.5 crore for a T20 game. The logo deal is not limited to the national teams. The Board is also looking to raise at least Rs 25 lakh for each 'Test', One-dayer and T20 match that its U-19 team plays. Similarly, the target for the women's team is Rs 10 lakh each for all the three formats. The rights holders will have to give a bank guarantee of the entire bid money. Sources said that if the bidders are buying logo rights for the Indian team along with Under-19, India-A and women's team, then they are expected to deposit a security amount of Rs 50 crore by November 22, two days before the actual date of submitting the tenders. And, if the bidders are only aiming for the senior team, the tender security fee would be Rs 48 crore. According to sources, some of the interested Indian companies are now having second thoughts about bidding. "The interested parties are in the process of picking up the tenders but we will see how many actually submit the bid. It's too high. There is no way this kind of deal can sustain in the current market scenario. Probably, the multinational companies may be able to afford such a high price," a sports marketing expert told TOI on Tuesday. Apart from Sahara, some of the prominent bidders four years ago were Idea, Hero Honda, Reliance and Indian Oil.

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