The success of the national cricket team in the just concluded Asia Cup has provided Bangladesh Cricket Board a renewed hope of wooing new sponsorship deals after it
had lost most of the regular commercial partners in the recent months.
The BCB had lost most of their sponsors apart from IT partner Aamra Networks by the end of 2011 including the regular sponsor of Tigers, Grameenphone, which left them
in desperate search for new options.
Bata, the clothing partner of BCB, has withdrawn itself in August-September while Grameenphone backed out in December after it had agreed to extend the deal for just
one month for the home series against Pakistan.
Pan Pacific Sonargaon, the hospitality partner of the board, did not extend their deal which ended in October 2011 while Pepsi, the beverage partner, also did the same
in December.
The agreement with Grameenphone for the National Cricket Academy expired on March 12 while the agreement with broadcasting partner Nimbus Sports International is set
to expire on March 31.
When the BCB is struggling to lure back the sponsors, the Asia Cup came as a huge blessing for them with the Tigers making it to the final and officials said they are
very much hopeful of cashing in on the success.
The BCB has one glaring example in Global Neway Private Limited, a Canada based multilevel company, who paid Taka one crore to sponsor Tigers’ shirt in the Asia Cup
and got their money back in manifold.
‘We are working on sponsorship deals for several months, though we did not get that much response,’ said Nizamuddin Chowdhury, the acting chief executive officer of
BCB.
‘I feel that this delay of getting a sponsor is a blessing in disguise as the value of cricket will automatically rise after the recent success in Asia Cup and we can
easily cash in on that when we make our next deal,’ he said.
‘We are currently preparing our papers for few tenders and we will float them within a short span of time,’ he said.
The BCB official is hopeful it will not be as difficult to get the sponsors as it was in the past with some new companies coming with a great deal of interest. He also
sees a role of Bangladesh Premier League in raising the commercial value of cricket.
‘With BPL a lot of companies have grown interest in cricket which is a very positive sign for us,’ he said.
‘You just see Neway, our Asia Cup sponsor, who first got involved with cricket with the BPL. Now we have also got a sponsor for Dhaka Premier League, which is at the
final stage,’ he said.
He was referring to BCB’s deal with Walton for the Dhaka Premier League which has got four rounds left now. Walton agreed to sponsor the league for a sum of Tk 35
lakh, which the BCB official said is a direct outcome of Asia Cup success.
‘All these things make us confident that we would get enough sponsors in near future,’ he said.
-With New Age input
