The Beximco Group struck a deal worth Tk 3.5 crore with the Bangladesh Cricket Board on Tuesday to sponsor the national cricket team in the forthcoming World Cup.
Beximco replaced Grameenphone as the official sponsor of the Tigers. Grameenphone had had to pull out from the World Cup because of a conflict of interest with the ICC sponsor Reliance, an Indian mobile operator.
In keeping with the ICC rules, no teams are allowed to take a sponsor in any of their events that is conflicting with its commercials partners.
Bangladesh had to drop their regular sponsor in their previous two World Cups also for the rule. But the amount they are drawing now from their World Cup sponsor is unusually high compared with what it was in the past.
The amount of money involved in the Beximco deal is 20 times higher than what the Bangladesh Cricket Board was paid by the Ispahani Group, which sponsored the national side in World Cup 2007 for only Tk 17.5 lakh. Ispahani, however, had to pay additional money after Bangladesh reached Super Eights in the last World Cup and got six extra matches.
The cricket board said Beximco would also increase the amount proportionately if Bangladesh can go beyond the group stage in the forthcoming event.
‘The money it is paying now is only for six group matches. It will increase the amount proportionally if Bangladesh can go to the next phase,’ the board’s chief executive officer Manzur Ahmed said at a press conference.
It means if Bangladesh can play in the quarter-final, the cricket board will earn an additional Tk 58 lakh.
Officials said the highest sponsorship amount the BCB won from an ICC event was Tk 25 lakh from the AB Bank during the ICC World Twenty20 in 2010.
‘I took this opportunity to congratulate the cricket board. Until today, it has done a great job by taking the game forward in Bangladesh,’ Salman F Rahman, the vice-chairman of the Beximco Group, said at the programme.
Intekhab Mahmud, the executive director of the Beximco Media Limited, and Manzur Ahmed signed the agreement.
After the signing, Bexmico also announced to launch a nationwide Wish Campaign for the Bangladesh team before the World Cup. Four caravans will travel across the country with four large bats where fans will be able to sign to wish Tigers good luck for the World Cup.
The bats will be handed over to the players during a reception on February 4, the officials said.
Among others, the BCB president, AHM Mustafa Kamal, and Shayan F Rahman, director of the Beximco Group, spoke.
