Byju's to replace Oppo as Indian cricket team's sponsor

What's the story?

Chinese smartphone manufacturing company, Oppo has decided to reallocate their Indian jersey rights to the online learning application, Byju's as Oppo is finding the deal value to be extremely high and unsustainable.

The Indian team will wear Oppo jerseys only till the end of the West Indies tour. From September onwards, Byju's will replace Oppo as the prime sponsor.

The background

Oppo had submitted a bid of a whopping 1,079 Crores INR way back in March 2017 to acquire the rights of the Indian jersey. The Chinese company took the place of Star India Pvt. Ltd. on the Indian jersey from March 2017. Under that contract, Oppo had to pay 4.6 Crores INR per bilateral match and 1.92 Crores INR per ICC or Asia Cup match to the BCCI.

Oppo's predecessor, Star was paying 1.92 Crores INR and 61 lakhs INR for the same rights before March 2017.

The heart of the matter

According to sources of TOI, Oppo took this decision because of the extremely high value of the deal. BCCI will continue to receive the same amount of money from Byju's which is an educational application offering online tutoring.

The fans will be able to see the name 'Byju's' on the Indian jersey when South Africa tours India in September. According to sources of TOI, the work of changing the Indian jersey is already in progress.

The online tutoring firm will hold the rights until 31 March 2022, the end date of the Oppo deal.

A surprising fact to note is that Oppo's sister company, Vivo was in competition for the jersey rights in March 2017 and the sources reveal that Vivo and Oppo engaged in an intense bidding war which led to this expensive contract.

What's next?

This is the third time in 6 years that the prime sponsor of the Indian jersey has changed. It will be interesting to see how the Byju's deal works out.