BCCI takes a hit of Rs 1.5 crore per game

Mumbai: The spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League may not have affected BCCI president N. Srinivasan directly, but the world's richest cricket board took a slight tumble on Thursday after it received just one bid for the title sponsorship of international series and domestic tournaments for the 2013-14 season. The BCCI on Thursday awarded rights to Star India Pvt. Ltd and ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd, at the base price of `2 crore per international match for all 13 home international fixtures. The new deal is `1.5 crore less per fixture compared to the previous one held by Airtel. The spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League may not have affected BCCI president N. Srinivasan directly, but the world’s richest cricket board took a slight tumble Thursday after it received just one bid for the title sponsorship of international series and domestic tournaments for the 2013-14 season. The BCCI on Thursday awarded rights to Star India Pvt. Ltd and ESPN Software India Pvt. Ltd, at the base price of `2 crore per international match for all 13 home international fixtures. The new deal is `1.5 crore less per fixture compared to the previous one held by Airtel. “We are pleased StarESPN bid for both the series. That means Australia and the West Indies... and the deal will be close to `26 crores,” said BCCI secretary Sanjay Patel after the marketing committee met here. Patel said in the current economic climate, the board was happy with the deal. “At one point we thought it would be very difficult to get sponsorship.” The BCCI secretary went on to rubbish talk that the board’s recent negative image had hurt its sponsorship value.