Sri Lanka Receives Lucrative Sponsorship Offers; Dialog Axiata Tops Bidders

Sri Lanka Cricket Treasurer Nuski Mohamed said that the organization "has received a sponsorship bid over 75% more profitable" than its current deal, "having called for for tenders" for the three-year period beginning on June 1, according to Andrew Fidel Fernando of ESPN. Sri Lanka's biggest mobile phone operator Dialog Axiata "has made the highest bid" at 1.077B rupees ($8.5M), while government-owned Sri Lanka Tea Board, Total Sports Asia and Madison Media "have also made bids." The current sponsorship deal for both the men's and women's teams was awarded to Mobitel in '09, and was worth $4.85M over three years. Mobitel "has not made a bid to renew" its sponsorship. Mohamed said that "the bids from the Tea Board and Total Sports Asia were around" 900M rupees ($7.1M) (ESPN, 2/13).