Looking to take Indian cricket, IPL forward to greater heights with TATA: Jay Shah

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) Jay Shah on Tuesday said that along with the TATA group, the Indian cricket board will look to take the sport and the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL) to greater heights after confirming that the Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai as the new title sponsor of the lucrative league.

“This is indeed a momentous occasion for the BCCI IPL as the Tata Group is the epitome of global Indian enterprise with an over 100-year-old legacy and operations in more than 100 countries across six continents. The BCCI like the TATA Group is keen to promote the spirit of cricket across international borders, and the growing popularity of the IPL as a global sporting franchise bears testimony to the BCCI’s efforts,” Shah said in an official statement.

“We are truly happy that India’s largest and most trusted business group has believed in the IPL growth story and together with the Tata Group, we will look to take Indian cricket and the IPL forward to greater heights,” he added.

Notably, Vivo had a couple of years left in its sponsorship deal with the cash-rich league and during this period, Tata will remain the main sponsor.

The chinese mobile manufacturer had signed a deal of Rs 2200 crore for title sponsorship rights between 2018-2022 however, the agreement was paused for a year in 2020 in the backdrop of the Galwan Valley military face-off between the Indian and Chinese Army soldiers. In 2020, the rights were transferred to fantasy gaming platform Dream 11.

Later, Vivo was back as the league’s title sponsor in 2021 and the original five-year deal got extended till 2023 due to the one-year break.

After the IPL’s GC decision, the Tata Group will step in and remain the title sponsor for the 2022 and 2023 seasons of the lucrative league.

Meanwhile, the two new franchises of the IPL – Lucknow and Ahmedabad – also reportedly received the formal clearance from the IPL GC.

Earlier in October last year, the Sanjeev Goenka-owned RPSG group and international investment firm – CVC Capital had bagged the ownership rights of the two new franchises of the IPL for Rs 7090 crores and 5625 crores respectively.

However, CVC Sports acquisition of the Ahmedabad franchise in the league had come under scanner following its association with the Milan-based betting company due to which there was a delay in issuing the Letter of Intent (LoI) by the Indian board.

Significantly, Tuesday’s IPL GC meeting was mainly called to issue the formal clearance to the new franchises.

The IPL 2022, which will now be a ten-team affair following the addition of the two new teams, is most likely to begin on April 2 in Chennai. Although the fixtures of the upcoming season have not been finalised yet however, the board had internally conveyed to the key stakeholders that the board is planning to start the 16th edition of the lucrative league on April 2 in Chennai.

As the next season will have a total of 74 games, the BCCI has discussed internally that the length of the season will be for over 60 days. As a result, the final could be played in the first weekend of June.

News Desk

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