Fantasy gaming platform Mobile Premier League's subsidiary conglomerate ‘MPL Sports Apparel and Accessories' is the new kit sponsor of the Indian cricket team for a period of three years. A member of the Apex Council confirmed the development on Monday that BCCI has signed the apparel and merchandise agreement with MPL, replacing Nike. It quotes; - "Yes, Apex Council has passed the sponsorship deal for apparel of Indian team (men, women, A and U19).  "However the rate per match will be Rs 65 lakh per game instead of Rs 88 lakh that Nike was giving," the senior official told PTI on conditions of anonymity.  It is learnt that BCCI will also get 10 percent of the royalty from the sale of merchandise.

While Puma and Adidas had earlier picked up the proposal papers for apparel sponsorship, they did not fill the tender as they felt that the deal needed to be reduced to one third from the original bid. Nike had a five-year deal during which they paid Rs 370 crore from 2016 to 2020 with a 30 crore royalty.  "No sporting apparel major was ready to pay that kind of money that Nike paid in current economic climate, due to COVID-19.

MPL is currently associated with two IPL franchises (KKR and RCB), one CPL franchise (TKR) and the cricket boards of Ireland and the UAE.

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