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$9.4m contract awaits Tigers

Sports Reporter
Sahara Matribhumi yesterday made an offer of approximately 9.4 million dollars to become the next sponsors of the Bangladesh cricket team.
On the deadline day of the Bangladesh Cricket Board's request for a quote, this was the highest bid by the local subsidiary firm of the Indian conglomerate Sahara India. Grameenphone, the previous long-term sponsors, offered approximately 3.2 million dollars while another telecom company Robi put forward roughly 4 million dollar deal.
During his three-day trip to Dhaka, Sahara India chairman Subrata Roy announced on Friday during a press briefing that his company, which is about to invest in different projects in the country, would also be interested to invest in Bangladesh cricket.
His proclamation that he would like to see "Sahara in Bangladesh's jerseys" has gone the distance and it is all but confirmed that the Indian multinational firm will replace Grameenphone as the long-term sponsors.
After all the bids were opened by acting CEO Nizam Uddin Chowdhury in the afternoon, BCB chief AHM Mustafa Kamal said that the Bangladesh team will benefit from Sahara's worldwide recognition.
"The national team sponsorship, which is the main component of the tenders that we had invited, has been offered 2.3 million dollars per year by Sahara," he told the reporters at the board headquarters.
"We expect the revenue to be around Tk 110 crore during this four-year period. It was unimaginable a few years ago but more than the money, I think it will be a turning point if we can have Sahara with us.
"They are a household name internationally, we will benefit from it. All the tenders sire for a four-year period. I hope that we can finalise the deals in the next few days," said Kamal.
"Now that our team are going abroad, I would like to see our players wearing the jersey of the sponsors we have a contract with. We will not delay it," he added.
But Kamal said that a decision hasn't been reached. "We haven't made a decision on the tenders; I just let you know what is the highest we've got. The other items are small; this is three-fourth of what we will get totally," he said.
He also informed that Sahara were the only company to bid for the rights to sponsor the National Cricket Academy, at a price of 130,000 dollars per year. It will fetch more than 500,000 dollars during the four-year period.
Apart from the national team and Academy, the board had also floated the tenders for in-stadia rights, title sponsorship of all home series under the Future Tours Programme (for four years), the hover cover (priced at 20,000 dollars per year), giant screen, manual scoreboard, beverage partner, hospitality partner and clothing. "Soon, we will also tender for our media rights," Kamal said, adding that the pavilions at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium will also be branded.