BCCI has failed to attract any bidders for Virat Kohli-led Team India’s apparel and kit sponsorship.

Trichromatic · September 4, 2020

Virat Kohli And Co. To Travel Without Kit Sponsor For 2020 Australia Tour?

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The BCCI, which is the richest cricket board in the world, has failed to attract any bidders for Virat Kohli-led Team India’s apparel and kit sponsorship.

Sports apparel brand Nike, which had been Team India's kit sponsors since 2005, will not be renewing its contract. It had a four-year deal with the BCCI since 2016 for ₹370 crore with a royalty of ₹30 crore, which is set to expire this month. As a result, the board had invited bids for the team kit sponsor and official merchandising partner rights through a tender process at the start of August.

BCCI Nike deal: Sourav Ganguly-led board fails to attract bidders for kit sponsorship

The BCCI had released a statement which said that the terms and conditions governing the submission and evaluation of bids including eligibility requirements and performance obligations are contained in the Invitation to Tender (ITT), which was made available from August 3, 2020, on receipt of payment of the tender fee of ₹1 lakh. The deadline to purchase the ITT was August 26.

However, in a turn of events, the richest cricket board in the world has reportedly failed to attract any bidders for Team India’s apparel and kit sponsorship. No party came forward to bid for Team India's kit sponsorship. According to a Mumbai Mirror report, at least three qualified bidders were in contention - Adidas, Puma and FanCode. However, the report added that none of them offered a financial bid despite the fact that the base price was lower than the existing price.

The existing price is ₹85 lakh that Nike pays the BCCI for every international game of Team India. However, in the new tender, the BCCI had set the base price to ₹65 lakh per game but no party bid for the rights as they wanted some kind of promotion for their brands. However, BCCI was not willing to offer any guarantees.

The latest development has put the Sourav Ganguly-led board in a spot of bother. At a time when the BCCI would want to focus entirely on the IPL 2020, they will have to find kit sponsors for Virat Kohli's team that is scheduled to travel to Australia for a long tour. Sourav Ganguly's board might now have to lower the base price in order to send Team India to Australia with kit sponsors.