CALCUTTA(PTI): Cigarette giants, ITC LTD, has tumed sports sponsorship in the country into a high stakes game, ITC, through a front company, Quorum communications, has bagged the domestic logo rights for Indian Cricketers for the next three years.
According to the agreement, all Indian cricketers will sport a Wills logo the biggest earning ITC brand name for matches played on Indian soil till March 1996, reports the Economic Times. The bids sprang up several surprises, Not only was there a phenomenal hike in price tags, they even surpassed the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCD’s wildest imaginations.
ITE left nothing to chance when it came to the bidding. All the top three bidders were all from the ITC group, 21st century media, which put in the fourth highest bid, did not even get a look in. The dramatic rise in bid values can be gauged from the fact that while the last round of bids brought in Rs 300,000 for one-dayers and Rs 400,000 for test matches, Quorum offered Rs 610,000 for one day matchandRs8810,000 for each test match.
“We are definitely interested in promoting sports and this is a step in this direction,” Ramnath says, “Wills is our most popular brand and it’s no line thing that Indian Cricketers will be sporting this logo.”
Article extracted from this publication >> October 8, 1993
