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title rights also include mileage on promotional material such
as television graphics and on-field branding on the stumps,
floodlight pylons, sightscreens, team dugouts and boundary ropes.
The BCCI will also issue tickets to the title sponsor and permit
branding and promotional activities on tickets.
BCCI
VP Lalit Modi says, "The Title Sponsorship race was tightly
contested between four participants, with DLF emerging the
final winner through a fair and transparent process. I am
truly happy to have India ’s leading real estate developer
DLF as our Title Sponsors as they happen to 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 as one to ensure the success of the IPL."
DLF
group executive director Rajeev Talwar said, “It gives
us immense pleasure winning the Title Sponsorship rights of
IPL, which will now be known as DLF Indian Premier League.
At DLF, we have always emphasised on nurturing and recognizing
talent and this is one more achievement towards nurturing
professional talent for the game of cricket in this
country. This is a game which has mass appeal all over India
and both cricket, as well as DLF will grow hand-in-hand.”
Now
all eyes will be on the players auction scheduled to take
place on 20 February 2008. This will happen through the open
bid process in association with IMG. 85 international and
Indian players are up for auction between the eight franchises
on that day. Each team can have only four international players.
The
minimum bid price for each player is $3.3 million and the
maximum is $5 million.
Before
the player’s auction happens, a decision on whether to
have icons needs to be taken by the franchisees, says Modi.
GMR and Deccan Chronicle want Sehwag and Laxman to be named
as icons. A meeting to this effect will take place on 19 February.
Franchisees can sell a part of their stake to another entity,
he adds.
Earlier
Max and WSG had bagged IPL's global media and production rights
for $ 1.026 billion. The franchise rights for the eight city
league were won by Shah Rukh Khan (Kolkata), Preity Zinta
(Mohali), Reliance Industries (Mumbai), GMR Holdings (Delhi),
UB Group (Bangalore), Indian Cements
(Chennai), Deccan Chronicle ( Hyderabad ) and Emerging
Media (Jaipur).
The
Indian Premier League is ready to kick off on 18 April 2008,
with action between Shah Rukh Khan’s Kolkata franchise
and business baron Vijay Mallya’s Bangalore Team at the
Chinnaswamy Stadium at Bangalore.
The Indian Premier League will feature eight Franchises and
will run for 44 days. Each franchise will play all others
on a home and away basis with seven matches at home. The top
four Franchises in the league will contest the semi finals
and the final will be over one weekend, which will be played
out in Mumbai.
The
inaugural season of the IPL will showcase 59 matches providing
broadcasters and in-stadia spectators with 177 hours of live
"family entertainment", which can also be viewed
by international audiences. All matches will be during late
afternoon and evening to coincide with prime time for television
and providing a convenient time for the stadium audience.
The
BCCI says that the event will get a fill-up from India’s
victory at the ICC World Twenty20.
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