As a new-look Team India prepares to play Sri Lanka in the first T20I on Tuesday, December 3, at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, it seems that they have secured a new team uniform and merchandising sponsor in Killer Jeans, one of the brands owned by Kewal Kiran Clothing Limited (KKCL).
According to rumours, the Mobile Premier League (MPL) has opted to transfer the Indian cricket team’s jersey sponsorship rights to KKCL and quit the one-year contract.
A few Indian players, including Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, Umran Malik, Mukesh Kumar, and Ruturaj Gaikwad, posed for a photo before of the forthcoming home white-ball series against the Islanders. Chahal shared the photograph on his official social media accounts.
The players wore the India jersey with the KKCL Killer brand emblem on the right side of their chests.
According to sources, on December 2, 2022, MPL Sports wrote an email to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) asking a complete transfer of team and merchandising at full value to the fashion wear company KKCL. The BCCI, on the other hand, has encouraged MPL to extend its sponsorship relationship at least until March 2023.
MPL signed a three-year contract with the national cricket body in November 2020, with the term running through December 31, 2023. Mobile Premier League has beaten Nike to this important contract.
As of now, it is unknown why MPL has backed out of this contract, given that the BCCI had rigorously prohibited the transfer of sponsorship rights to any other firms till March of this year at its Apex Council meeting.
Previously, one of the BCCI’s biggest sponsors, Paytm, had ceded the domestic rights to Mastercard, while edtech behemoth BYJU’S has allegedly expressed a desire to dissolve its sponsorship relations with the board long before the term of their contractual agreement expires.
