The iconic blue shirt just got richer

The Indian cricket team will soon take the field wearing Board of Cricket Control in India’s (BCCI) financial health — currently l...

The Indian cricket team will soon take the field wearing Board of Cricket Control in India’s (BCCI) financial health — currently looking as pink as fuschia — on its sleeves.

Team Cricket India on Friday raked in a record Rs 196.66 crore five-year official kit deal with Nike for branding on the non-leading arm. The net shirt-sponsorship (including the Rs 415 crore 4-year-leading arm and main sponsorship) is estimated at $27.2 million a year. BCCI’s evaluation of the tenders on Friday saw Nike edge out other sports majors Reebok (Rs 119.48 crore) and Adidas (127.75 crore) to bag the 5-year rights, beginning January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2010.

Announcing this, Board vice-president Lalit Modi said,‘‘With this, the BCCI has become the world’s most valued brand in team sponsorship.’’

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Buy analysts say Modi may have got his figures wrong? Or has he spun them a bit too much? ‘‘With Nike and Sahara sponsorship the team would get $27.12 million per year just for the shirt, making it the number one sponsored team across all sports’’, he said at the press conference today.

Yet in offering comparisons, he gave only half the picture. Team India, he said, would be bigger than Manchester United and Chelsea — but in their cases (and others mentioned) he was taking into account just shirt sponsorship. Man United’s deal with Vodafone (which ends next May) brings in a humble $12.5 million annually — but they get an additional $38 million each year from Nike for apparel sponsorship! Chelsea gets $17 million from Samsung for shirt sponsorship and, next season, will get an additional $17 million from Umbro for apparel sponsorship.

Interestingly, Nike’s press release doesn’t mention the phrase ‘‘number one sponsored team’’, nor does it quote Modi as saying so. And a Nike spokesperson, when contacted, said they were unaware of Modi’s statement.

Nike officially unfolded the shirts — which looked a shade deeper than the usual blue — in the presence of BCCI vice-presidents IS Bindra, Modi and chairman of selectors Kiran More.