BCB ends contract with Sahara

Desk Report: The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) has canceled its contract with Aamby Valley, an affiliate of Sahara India Parivar, 15 months before it was scheduled to end.

The board is now looking for a new team sponsor for the home series against Pakistan this month, reports ESPNcricinfo.  

The BCB had sold team sponsorship rights to Aamby Valley in June 2012, in a $14 million four-year deal that was the biggest in Bangladesh cricket.

The contract was supposed to end in June 2016 but a BCB advertisement in a national daily on March 30 marked the end of the alliance.

Chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury confirmed the BCB had ended the contract with Sahara, but did not want to disclose the financial implications of the termination.

"We have decided not to continue our contract with Sahara. That`s why we have given an advertisement for a new team sponsor for the Pakistan series. We cannot speak about the deal with Sahara at this moment," said Nizamuddin.

Sahara`s financial difficulties over the past year have been a matter of public record, with India`s Supreme Court ordering the group head to remain in its custody pending trial.

In 2012, Sahara had outbid Grameenphone, who had sponsored the Bangladesh team for eight years. It bid approximately $9.4 million, substantially more than the $ 3.4 million from Grameenphone and $4 million from another bidder.

Sahara had also won branding rights for the national team and the national cricket academy, and title sponsorship and in-stadia sponsorship for 2012-13.

BCB has asked the new bidders to include an irrevocable bank guarantee of 50% of the total offered value, which will be considered as a security deposit. The company that wins the rights has to pay the full quoted amount before the signing of the agreement. It has to be completed by April 12.

risingbd/Apr 04, 2015/Aminul