IPL nets US$50m for title sponsorship rights

After raking in US$723.59 million in the auction for city-based franchises, the Indian Premier League announced the signing of a five-year deal worth Rs 200 crore (approximately US$50m) for the title sponsorship rights. The bid for the rights was won by DLF Ltd, one of India's leading real estate developers, and the tournament will be formally known as the DLF Indian Premier League.

DLF narrowly edged out the World Sports Group (WSG), bidding on behalf of the motorcycle company Hero Honda Motors (India) Ltd, Percept D'Mark and 21st Century Media. Incidentally, the Singapore-based WSG, in consortium with India's Sony Television network, secured the television rights for ten years at a cost of more than US$1 billion.

"The title sponsorship race was tightly contested between three participants, with DLF emerging the final winner through a fair and transparent process," Lalit Modi, the IPL chairman and commissioner, said. "We had a minimum bid price of Rs 125 crore (around US$31.5m). We are very happy with the bid we got.

"I am truly happy to have DLF as our title sponsors as they share a common vision with the BCCI to make the Indian Premier League one of finest cricketing leagues in the world.

"It is exciting to have an eclectic mix of elite Indian businessmen, Bollywood personalities and corporates as our allies, working collectively to ensure the success of the IPL."

The focus will now be on the player auctions scheduled for February 20, with the eight franchises fighting it out over a player pool that includes more than 80 international cricketers who have already signed a Memorandum of Understanding. The minimum bidding amount for a pool of contracted players in each franchise team has been fixed at US$3m and the maximum cap at US$5m. The IPL has already named Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Yuvraj Singh and Rahul Dravid as icon players, making them unavailable for any other side other than their city teams.

There have been concerns over the participation of Australian players in the tournament, with Cricket Australia having expressed reservations over sponsor protection. However, Australian players such as Andrew Symonds and Ricky Ponting are high on the wishlist of several franchises.

The inaugural edition of the IPL, which lasts for 44 days, is scheduled to kick off on April 18 and features a 56-game league phase followed by the semi-finals and final in Mumbai.