In 2022, the Indian cricket team fans not only saw amendments in captains but also in sponsors. A total of seven different cricketers captained the Men in Blue across all three formats. Such circumstances occurred due to injuries and workload management. On the other end, brands were also not able to complete their partnership duration, major reasons could be the dried-up VC investments and economic slowdown.
- Sponsorship rights holder changing hands
Vivo was replaced by Tata as the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League (IPL) and Paytm also transferred its home bilateral series title rights to Mastercard. The latest development in this particular scenario is MPL Sports transferring its sponsorship rights to Kewal Kiran Clothing Limited (KKCL). The Killer Jeans brand affirmed this association last week and with this arrangement, the Board of Control for Cricket in India‘s (BCCI) saga of changing sponsors continues.
In this development, MPL will prolong to be the kit partner of the Indian cricket team and will manage the team kit sales until the association ends in March 2023. Killer Jeans has been onboarded by the Indian cricket governing body as an official sponsor and not as a kit supplier.
Last year in December, MPL requested an early exit from its agreement with the BCCI and had reportedly proposed Paytm as the replacement. As per reports, the BCCI denied MPL’s request at that time, one of the major reasons behind it would be Paytm pulling out of its deal with the Apex Indian cricket organisation before the conclusion of the term. The deal between the Indian mobile and financial services company and the BCCI was till March 2023. Later Paytm requested BCCI to assign its rights to Mastercard.
MPL somehow managed to find a worthy replacement with Killer Jeans to save on the investments for the remainder of the agreement until March 2023.
- Seeking out new sponsors
As per reports, the BCCI helmed by the former cricketer Roger Binny is in a conversation with several new brands for becoming the Indian cricket team’s kit partner from June 2023. BCCI has a proper two-month window to zero down on the Indian team’s kit partner as April and May are off-season for bilateral fixtures due to the IPL.
There haven’t been any developments on whether the BCCI will conduct a tender process for securing new brands. A tender process enables more brands to participate and it provides a fair process for the contenders to make their bids for lucrative marketing assets.
No one knows which brand is acquiring what position on the prestigious Indian cricket team jersey but one thing is certain cricket enthusiasts will witness new logos on the Indian kit starting in the second half of the year.