BCCI to decide on team sponsors on May 31

The Indian cricket board's marketing committee is to meet in Mumbai on May 31 to wrap up the much-delayed team sponsorship details for which the BCCI issued a tender notice inviting bids on Monday.

"The marketing committee of the BCCI will meet on the 31st to decide on the team sponsorship. It will be chaired by the President (Shashank Manohar)," BCCI sources said on Tuesday.

BCCI's deal with Sahara Group for team sponsorship is coming to an end next month-end and it has invited bids from companies for sponsoring four Indian squads, including the much sought-after men's outfit.

The Board has fixed Rs 2.25 crore as the base price per match for the bids for all three formats for the men's outfit - Tests, ODIs and T20s, it is learned.

The tender notice, issued by BCCI secretary N Srinivasan, called for firms to bid for sponsorship of the men's, women's, India A and India under-19 teams, indicating the documents would be available from May 24 for a non-refundable payment of Rs 5 lakh.

It said all bidders need to fulfill the eligibility criteria set up by the Board as well as other requirements as mentioned in the bid document.

Submission of the bids has also to be done as per conditions outlined and the Board reserved its rights "to cancel or amend the entire bidding process at any stage and to reject any and/or all bids without providing any reasons, including calling for a re-tender."

Sahara, which has supported the Indian team for several years as its main sponsor, recently bid successfully for the new Pune IPL franchise for a staggering Rs 1700 crore.

Sahara will review its sponsorship to the Indian cricket team, Group chief Subroto Roy had said after winning the IPL franchise bid on March 23.

Sahara had bagged the sponsorship for the Indian cricket team for Rs 400 crore for a four-year period ending December 2009, and agreed to continue for six more months as BCCI could not find any sponsors.