A member of the Apex Council confirmed the development on Monday that BCCI has inked the apparel and merchandise deal with MPL, replacing Nike. "Yes, Apex Council has passed the sponsorship deal for apparel of Indian team (men, women, A and U19).

"However the rate per match will be Rs 65 lakh per game instead of Rs 88 lakh that Nike was giving," the senior official told PTI on conditions of anonymity. While Puma and Adidas had earlier picked up the bid papers for apparel sponsorship, they didn''t fill the bid as they felt that the deal needed to be reduced to one third from the original bid. Nike had a five year deal during which they paid Rs 370 crore from 2016 to 2020 with a 30 crore royalty. "No sporting apparel major was ready to pay that kind of money that Nike paid in current economic climate (due to COVID-19).

"One of the major reasons being merchandise items being very costly for common public," the source said.