Adidas will pay 350 crores to sponsor the cricket team’s kit.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is close to signing German sporting goods multinational Adidas as the kit sponsor for the Indian cricket team for ₹350 crore, a senior BCCI official said.
Adidas will replace Kewal Kiran Clothing Ltd, maker of Killer Jeans, which came in as interim sponsor last month after the then sponsor Mobile Premier League Sports (MPL Sports) pulled out of the deal midway.
“We have formally shaken hands and emails have been exchanged. The board is now in the process of drawing up the contracts and the deal will be signed soon,” the official cited above said on the condition of anonymity. Adidas’s five-year term will start this June and run till March-end 2028. The company will be expected to pay ₹65 lakh for every match that India plays. Including royalty for merchandise, the annual outlay is expected to be around ₹70 crore.
An email and text messages sent separately to BCCI officials remained unanswered. Adidas declined to comment.
The previous sponsor MPL Sports is an athleisure wear and sports merchandise brand from Galactus Funware Technology Pvt. Ltd. The BCCI-MPL Sports kit deal was to last for three years from November 2020 to December 2023.
However, despite BCCI’s request to stay on till 31 March, the fantasy sports company pulled out in January, after which Kewal Kiran took over as interim sponsor.
MPL had come in after US sportswear company Nike’s term ended in 2020 after a 14-year-long association.
“This deal is true and the numbers are going to be similar to what MPL had paid. But it would be interesting to understand how the licensing deal will be structured since the problem won’t be the logo positioning as such, but licensing itself, because as a business, licensing has not taken off in India. Logos are a justifiable cost but the licensing is where the losses have been,” said a top executive of a sports marketing company.
Lately, many sponsors have exited or reassigned their sponsorship rights with the BCCI and the Indian Premier League. Edtech brand Byju’s, which extended its team India jersey sponsorship deal last year, after initially getting the rights reassigned from Oppo, is also looking to exit.
