Dialog and ITW come in as new team sponsors
Dialog Axiata, Sri Lanka’s leading mobile telecommunication partner, is poised to sign a fresh deal with Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) after winning a formal bid process to be the national team sponsor for in-bound tours while ITW India (Pvt) Ltd will own the same rights for out-bound tours.
The joint sponsorship is valued at around US$ 4.5 million for the current three-year cricket cycle which began in April this year.
However, Dialog’s offer this time around is less than what they had paid the board on two previous occasions. Dialog first partnered with SLC as the Official Sponsor of the National Men’s and Women’s Cricket Teams, at a sum of Rs 753.9 million. They further extended the deal in 2016 for a three-year period. However, SLC attempted to negotiate the terms offered with both parties in order to raise the amount offered but had not materialised due to various reasons including the current global health crisis.
Meanwhile ITW will also be SLC’s ground rights partner.
Interestingly SLC has successfully negotiated with Sony Pictures Network India to offer them the media rights for current three-year cricket cycle without the rescheduled England tour of Sri Lanka next year.
England were in Sri Lanka to play a two-match Test series this March when it was called off due to the threats posed by the Covid-19 pandemic and was later rescheduled for January 2021.
Sony who was the only bidder for the media rights had made their initial offer including the England tour but their offer for the particular series has been well below expectations. SLC thinks they can make more money by selling the tour separately than what was offered by Sony for the particular series. Sony’s valuation for the England tour was around US$ 700,000, much less than what was expected by the SLC.
“We can at least make US$ 1.5 million to US$ 2 million for the tour,” an SLC official said.
Sony’s offer – US$ 22.3 million – remained well short of what SLC had originally expected but given the current world economic situation, SLC is content with what they have pocketed.
Sri Lanka will seal the deals this week following the completion of the financial evaluations, sources confirmed.
Sri Lanka is scheduled to host 25 Tests, 60 ODIs and 38 T20 internationals during the new FTP term, which began on April 1, 2020.