Pepsi gains sponsorship for India's home one-dayers

Despite recent failures of the Indian team in the one-day series in South Africa, the Indian board (BCCI) had no problem at all when it came to roping in sponsorship for the eight home one-day internationals (ODIs) scheduled for this season. Pepsi has underwritten the eight games to the tune of Rs16 crores ($3.5 million approx) with a whopping Rs2 crore (half a million dollars approx) per game.

This, however, does not mean that Pepsi will be the sole title sponsors of the two series, against West Indies and Sri Lanka. They can sell it to other companies like they have done in the past though at the moment it is unclear whether a similar arrangement will be reached for these one-dayers as well. Last year the home series were alternately titled the Videocon Cup and the TVS Cup.

This year's two crore per game has resulted in almost a 74% raise in the sponsorship revenue per game from last year's 1.15 crore.

In the past the BCCI had sold similar rights for a period of one year. However, this time around, after this batch of eight ODIs India are not playing at home for a period of almost 10 months. As a result the BCCI has sold the rights to these games as a block.

India first play four ODIs against West Indies from January 21 to January 31. Then, they go on to play Sri Lanka from February 8 to February 17.