Star India seeks ‘discount’ from BCCI, Byju’s seeks encashment of bank guarantee
Star India, the media rights holder of India’s domestic season, has sought a ‘discount’ of Rs 130 crore from the BCCI (Indian cricket board) in the current deal, while Byjus, which is pulling out of jersey sponsorship, wants the board to pay its full fee under the current deal. Encash the bank guarantee of Rs 140 crore. The top BCCI officials discussed both the topics for over an hour in the emergency meeting of the Apex Council on Monday. It was a virtual meeting (online meeting). Byjus had informed the BCCI in November that it wanted to pull out of jersey sponsorship of the Indian cricket team.
The board, however, had asked the edtech company to continue with the agreement at least till March 2023. In June, Byju’s had extended the jersey sponsorship deal till November 2023 for around $35 million (about Rs 3 billion). Of this, Rs 140 crore is to be paid to BCCI through bank guarantee while the remaining Rs 160 crore will be paid through instalments. A source close to the BCCI told PTI, “The only issues of Byjus and Star India were discussed in this meeting, but it also took more than an hour. This is a serious issue involving millions of dollars so it was only natural that it would take time.
Byjus was one of the sponsors of the FIFA World Cup. It has announced to lay off 2,500 of its 50,000 employees to make the company profitable by March. It was also learned that in the meeting, Star has asked for a ‘discount’ of around Rs 130 crore in the current deal. It had paid Rs 6138.1 crore for India’s international and domestic cricket rights for the period 2018-2023. Some matches during the contract period had to be rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The issue was discussed at length but the board is yet to take a final decision,” the source said.
Star India was contacted for a comment but did not get revert. An industry source said, “Star has only told BCCI that the board should take the amount as per the agreement. The matches which could not be played in 2020 and were organized in 2022, should be paid at the rate of 2020. In such a situation, to say that Star has demanded an ‘exemption’ is completely misleading. ”The matter has come up at a time when the current BCCI agreement ends in March. The board is then preparing to sell media rights for the next five-year cycle. Considering the media rights of IPL (Rs 48390 crore), BCCI is expecting another windfall.
