The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has officially announced its new sponsorship agreement with Mastercard. It replaced Paytm who had decided to pull out of the agreement. The rights were reassigned at a similar price of Rs.3.8 Crore per match.
As per the agreement, Mastercard is going to be the title sponsor for the international matches for both women that’ll be held in India. Besides the international matches, MasterCard will also be the sponsor of domestic cricket matches like the Irani Trophy, Duleep Trophy, Ranji Trophy, and Junior cricket ( U 19 and U 23) matches organized by BCCI in India.
Mastercard has active sponsorships globally with the UEFA Champions League, the Grammys, and the Cannes Films Festival.
The brand also sponsors Australia and French Open tennis tournaments.
“The BCCI welcomes Mastercard as the Title Sponsor for home cricket matches for the 2022-23 season. Along with the international home series, the BCCI’s domestic tournaments are crucial as they are a stepping stone towards making India a strong international side. The BCCI truly values Mastercard’s support in building Indian cricket.”- said BCCI president Sourav Ganguly
In the year 2019, Paytm signed a deal worth ₹326.80 crores. The deal’s expiry date was in 2023. The winning bid was ₹3.80 crore per match. This was at the increment value of 58% compared to the previous match value which was ₹2.4 crores. In 2015, Paytm became the first-time title sponsor for Indian cricket. However, in July, the brand asked BCCI to assign rights to Mastercard to which BCCI agreed to announce the new title sponsor on September 5.
Since Mastercard has sponsored a lot of International Sports brands, and the passion points actually match with the Indian ones. This was proved four years ago when Mastercard signed MS Dhoni as its brand ambassador. The former skipper of India was very excited to be a part of this deal.
This is what he had to say:
“Cricket has been my life and given me everything I have. I am thrilled that Mastercard is sponsoring all the home cricket matches of the BCCI, especially the domestic, junior and women’s cricket. The Ranji and junior players of today will play for the country tomorrow and continue to embody the pride of 1.3 billion Indians.”
Mastercard will be starting to sponsor the international games of India from the home series against Australia and South Africa. In the domestic arena, Mastercard will be sponsoring the upcoming Duleep Trophy that starts on September 8.
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