NEW DELHI: Anil Ambani may not own an Indian Premier League team like his brother Mukesh yet, but the industrialist is vying for other things - Team India's sponsorship.
Reports suggest that the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group has bought the tender form floated by the BCCI for Team India's sponsorship. Though no BCCI or ADAG official spoke on record about Ambanis interest in Team India's sponsorship, sources said that the industrial house purchased the form paying Rs 5 lakh on Monday, the day it went on sale.
This is the second tender process initiated by the BCCI in six months. The last attempt in December 2009 evoked no response as the BCCI had reportedly put a high base price of Rs 3 crore for the sponsorship.
Anil Ambani is also one of the major sponsors for the International Cricket Council, having reportedly invested about $100 million for an eight-year deal. This time, however, the situation looks different as Team India's sponsorship means the logo of the company will be prominently flashed on Indian cricketers' jersey.
Before Anil, his elder brother Mukesh entered Indian cricket by buying the IPL team Mumbai Indians. Mukesh owned Reliance Industries Limited purchased the rights for the Mumbai franchise for a total of Rs. 441 crore during the first IPL auction in 2008.
The BCCI floated the tenders as Team India's sponsorship deal with Sahara is about to end in a month. It is not known if Sahara will continue its association with the Indian team as they recently bought the new Pune IPL franchise for Rs 1700 crore.
Earlier, they had bagged the sponsorship for the Indian team for Rs 400 crore for a four-year period that ended on December 2009. However, they had agreed to continue for 6 more months as BCCI could not find any sponsors. However, it is likely that the company will buy the form too.
Two-wheeler major Hero Honda are also reportedly in the fray. They have been title sponsors for a number of cricket series and also title sponsors of the IPL team Delhi Daredevils. Hero Honda officials were not available for comments, but industry sources said they are likely to bid for deal.
The BCCI has set a base price of Rs 2.25 crore per match while inviting bids to sponsor the team for a four-year period, beginning with the 2010-2011 season. The BCCIs tender notice, which also invited bids for sponsoring the India A, India Under-19 and the women's teams, opened on Monday while the deadline for bids closes on May 29. The bids would be opened and awarded at the Boards marketing committee meeting in Mumbai on May 31.
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Anil Ambani May Sponsor Team India
INDIA Wins the Series 2-0.
MUMBAI: India became the number one team in Test rankings after they spanked Sri Lanka by an innings and 24 runs in the third and final Test, on Sunday, to clinch the three-match series by a 2-0 margin.
Needing just four wickets to record an emphatic victory, the hosts took just about 40 minutes to polish off the visiting team's tail to record their second consecutive innings victory.
Resuming at 274/6, the Sri Lankans lost their heroic captain Kumar Sangakkara (137) in the very first over and were bundled out for 309 with Zaheer Khan being the pick of the Indian bowlers with figures of 5/72.
The Sunday crowd at the Brabourne Stadium, hosting a Test match after a gap of 36 years, witnessed a historic moment as Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men crowned themselves the number one team.
The crowd erupted into a frenzy as Muttiah Muralitharan edged a flighted delivery from Harbhajan Singh to Dhoni to bring down the curtains on the Lankan innings.
The Indian players hugged each other and a beaming coach Gary Kirsten greeted them as they returned to the pavilion.
The victory has given India three points in the ICC rankings, taking their overall tally to 122 and leaving them ahead of South Africa and Sri Lanka in the ICC table.
The teams will now gear up for two Twenty20 matches in Nagpur and Mohali followed by a five-match One-day series which begins at Rajkot from December 15.
The match would be best remembered for the blazing 293-run knock that Virender Sehwag played. The right-hander, however, missed out on becoming the first batsman in the game's history to score three triple tons.
Such was India's dominance that Dhoni's men completed the comprehensive victory in just 7.4 overs this morning.
Zaheer hastened Lanka to their doom by claiming three of the last four wickets to finish with his eighth five-wicket innings haul.
The 31-year-old pacer's figures in the morning sessions read an astonishing 4-1-21-3. Sri Lanka needed 59 more runs to make India bat again but with just four wickets in hand to start the day, only a miracle could have saved the match for them.
After having brought down the visitors to their knees last evening, India dismissed Sangakkara off the third ball to start their victory march.
Zaheer swung the ball a bit away and Sangakkara, who struck his 20th four off his previous ball, was drawn to it like a magnet but only managed to edge it to counterpart Dhoni.
He could add only four runs to his overnight score and fell for 137 in 349 minutes after having prevented the hosts from sweeping to victory last evening.
Zaheer then dismissed Rangana Herath in his third over, caught by a diving Pragyan Ojha at short mid-wicket while attempting a pull.
Muthiah Muralitharan then used the long handle against Zaheer by carting the bowler for three fours in one over before the left-arm pacer sent back overnight unbeaten batsman Nuwan Kulasekara.
Kulasekara, resuming at 9, could not negotiate a rising ball from Zaheer and edged it to second slip fielder VVS Laxman. He added 10 more runs including two boundary hits to his individual score.
Harbhajan then brought down curtains on the match by having Muralitharan caught behind as he tried an almighty heave to give Dhoni his sixth catch in the match.
Spinners Harbhajan, who looked unimpressive for the major part, and Pragyan Ojha finished with two wickets apiece for 80 and 84 runs respectively while S Sreesanth bagged 1 for 36.
It was the second successive innings victory for India following their resounding win by an innings and 144 runs in the second Test at Kanpur. The first Test at Ahmedabad was drawn.
It was also India's 101st Test win and their fifth at this venue in 18 matches.
Pak Cant Wait For Match Against India
Six years have passed since their humiliating loss to India here in a World Cup match but Pakistan captain Younis Khan says the defeat still hurts and his team would be eyeing revenge when the two sides clash in the Champions Trophy on September 26.
In a 2003 World Cup match here, Pakistan lost the match despite defending a competitive 270 owing to batting fireworks of Virender Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar.
"It hurts. I played that match. We scored 270 and still lost. A score of 250 in these conditions is considered safe. But the way Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag batted, and backed by Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh, we lay beaten. That defeat still hurts," Younis said in a pre-tournament press conference here.
"Indeed, we have lost to India in most of these ICC match-ups except only once. Ab hamara bhi jeetne ka haq banta hai (even we deserve to win sometimes now)," he added.
Younis said he wished there were more matches between the two sides.
"If you get beaten, it's a long wait to get even. It keeps hurting you," he quipped.
Also hurting Younis and his team-mates are accusations from former players and media back home that Pakistani players might be involved in match fixing.
ICC Champions Trophy
The ICC Champions Trophy is the second biggest ODI tournament after the World Cup. This time it’s the elite eight (top eight teams in the ICC ODI rankings) that will be vying for the coveted trophy. The trophy, which is made of sterling silver, is 46cm in height and weighs 3.1 kg. On the top of the trophy is a silver gilt cricket ball.
The pedestal of the trophy is made of black lacquered wood with a silver band for engraving. The total weight of the silver used in the trophy is 2.5 kg and it took around 60 hours to craft the trophy. The magnificent trophy was made by the renowned London-based jewellers Asprey at a cost of £14,900. The 2009 edition of Champions Trophy offers total prize money of $4 million.
