The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has set a base price of ₹350 crore for the national lead sponsor rights, sources privy to the development told ET.

One of the sources said that the base price for the bilateral matches featuring India is ₹3 crore per match and ₹1 crore per match for International Cricket Council (ICC) and Asian Cricket Council (ACC) tournaments.

The BCCI released the tender for national team lead sponsor rights on June 14. The tender document will be available for purchase until June 26.

The base price is less than the amount paid by the edtech company Byju’s, which was the lead sponsor until March. Byju’s was paying ₹5.07 crore per match for domestic matches featuring Team India and ₹1.56 crore per match for ICC and ACC tournaments.

The BCCI has barred betting, crypto-currency, tobacco, and real-money gaming companies from bidding for the lead sponsor rights.

BCCI did not respond to ET’s request for comment.A sports business expert said that the BCCI has made the right decision by setting a lower base price than what it was getting from Byju’s.”BCCI has set a realistic base price for the lead sponsor rights. The ad market is tough, and the new-age sponsors who were spending large sums of money on cricket have cut their marketing budgets drastically due to the funding winter,” the expert said on the condition of anonymity.

The expert noted that lead sponsor rights are a great asset that can be used by brands to build long-term value. “Byju’s became a well-known brand due to its association with Team India. The lead sponsor asset is a powerful one to build brands,” the expert added.

In 2019, Byju’s replaced mobile handset maker Oppo to become the jersey sponsor of the Indian cricket team. Having bagged the jersey sponsorship rights in March 2017 for a whopping ₹1079.3 crore, Oppo exited the deal by transferring its sponsorship rights to Byju’s.

Earlier, GroupM South Asia head of sports, esports, and entertainment Vinit Karnik had said that an estimated ₹2,000-2,500 crore worth of on-ground sponsorship inventory across the Indian Premier League (IPL) and bilateral matches will become available this year.

According to the GroupM India Sports Sponsorship Report 2023, the Indian sports industry’s advertising revenue surged 49% to ₹14,209 crore in 2022 and is expected to reach ₹16,000 crore in 2023. The agency believes that the sports industry’s ad revenue could potentially reach ₹20,000 crore by 2025.