Anil Ambani eyeing Team India sponsorship

Zeecric Bureau

New Delhi: After Mukesh Ambani’s success as owner of an IPL team, it is time for brother Anil to make his foray into cricket. The younger brother may not have an IPL team, but the multi-millionaire industrialist is vying for Team India’s sponsorship, for which the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had invited tender on Monday. It’s learnt that Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has bought the tender from BCCI for Team India’s sponsorship. BCCI sources informed that along with ADAG group, Hero Honda had also bought the tender form yesterday. Though the officials from both the companies are tightlipped about the sponsorship pact, sources in the industry confirmed that both the groups are likely to bid for the multi-crore deal. With its contract with Sahara coming to an end next month, the BCCI on Monday had invited bids from companies through a tender notice for sponsoring four Indian squads, including the much sought-after men`s outfit. 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 that all bidders need to fulfill the eligibility criteria set up by the Board as well as other requirements mentioned in the bid document. Submission of the bids has to be done as per conditions outlined, and Board reserves the 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 had agreed to continue for six more months as BCCI could not find any sponsors. "No, it will not. Only thing we will see is our continuation of sponsorship to the Indian cricket team. We will sit on that and we will discuss on that. But on all other sports nothing will be affected," Roy had said on the impact of the Group`s aggressive bidding to acquire the IPL`s Pune franchise. Asserting that the Group, which is also sponsoring the Indian hockey team, would seriously consider (limiting) exposure to the BCCI and the women`s cricket, he said then that the Group "will take a conscious decision about it."