STAR India outbid SAHARA to become new sponsors of Team India

Team India

After December 2013, Team India will have a new sponsor name on their shirts. STAR India have won the Indian cricket team’s title sponsorship rights by outbidding the current sponsors Sahara India. The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced the new sponsors after opening the bids in Chennai on Monday. STAR India will hold the Team India rights from 2014 to 2017. The current sponsors Sahara’s term will expire at the end of this year. STAR are the broadcaster partners of the Indian cricket Board.

Sahara have been the prime sponsors of the Indian cricket team since 2002 and they outbid Airtel in 2010 to extend their sponsorship of the Indian team. Sahara secured the rights by paying Rs 3.34 crore to Airtel’s Rs 2.89 crore per international game. Sahara had been paying Rs 3.34 crore per international match since July 1, 2010. However, BCCI had slashed the base price to Rs 1.5 crore per match this time.

Among the five major companies vying for the bids were STAR India, Multi Screen Media and the UB Group. Sahara, who were not interested before, were late entrants after sorting out their differences with BCCI president N. Srinivasan.