BCCI
The decision to give the title sponsorship rights to Paytm was taken in the marketing committee meeting.Reuters

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) decided to award the title sponsorship rights for India's international home matches to One97 Communications, who are the owners of Paytm, on Thursday.

Paytm have now bagged the rights for the title sponsorship for four years, which is until 2019. Paytm placed the winning bid of Rs 2.42 crore per match ahead of Micromax, who previosly held the rights for the BCCI home matches. 

Paytm have managed to place a bid which was Rs 40 lakh more than what Micromax were paying BCCI in the last season. The bid for the title sponsorship rights were opened at an amount of Rs 1.68 crore, which was kept as the base price per match. 

"Cricket is the dream sport for us in India. Cricket epitomises the Paytm values of passion, hard work and team effort. We are very happy to partner with the ​BCCI and cheer for Indian cricket with millions of fans. Over the next 4 years, we will continue to invest strongly in cricket and other sports. As a growing brand which has big plans for a billion strong Indians, there is no better platform than cricket in India," Paytm Founder & CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma told reporters on Thursday. 

The decision to award the title sponsorship rights to Paytm was taken in the marketing committee meeting. The meeting was divided in two and it went on for five hours on Thursday. 

"​We are elated to have Paytm as our homes series title sponsors. They are one of the new generation companies and we are delighted to partner with ​them. Having them for next four years gives the stability and continuity to Indian cricket.​ ​With nearly 84 matches scheduled over the next 4 years with all major countries playing in India we are hopeful that Paytm will be able to build a strong and strategic association with Cricket. We are also happy that the realisation has increased by 20%. It augurs well for Indian cricket. I am thankful to Paytm for their interest and faith in Indian Cricket and welcome them on board," BCCI secretary Anurag Thakur told the reporters on Thursday. 

The first series that Paytm will be a part of will be the 70-days long South Africa tour of India later this year. 

A BCCI media release read: " Paytm grabs the title sponsorship rights for India home series for four years. One 97 Communications Pvt. Ltd. (Paytm) have acquired the sponsorship rights for the BCCI International and Domestic matches. The winning bid was at a price of Rs.203.28 Crores to be paid over the 4 years term. The bid was opened in the meeting of the BCCI marketing committee held earlier today ​in New Delhi."

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