Cricket in India is not a mere sport, it is an Indian feeling, a discussion point of every day and a kind of a marketing platform that is regarded as a strong marketing tool. To the brands, the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team has never been a matter of placing logos only. t has been more about trust transfer, mass visibility, and accelerated market dominance.
In the past three decades, ITC companies, Sahara India Pariwar, OPPO, BYJU, Dream11, Apollo Tyres and television companies such as Star Sports have marketed their brands not only through cricket, but also through market share and profitability over the long run.
Why Sponsoring the Indian Cricket Team Is a Marketing Multiplier
The Indian cricket team may provide unmatched brand coverage and exposure, which will be achieved through television coverage, stadium coverage, branding, streaming digital platforms such as OTTs, ICC tournaments, bilateral series, and press conferences reaching out to hundreds of millions of viewers in India and worldwide.
When a brand logo appears on the front of the Indian jersey, it receives:
- Live visibility of broadcasting.
- Highlight replay exposure
- Social media amplification
- Perception of International tournaments.
- Emotional attachment to national pride.
This generates so-called “emotional equity acceleration.” in the eyes of marketers. The brands purchase the cultural relevance instead of purchasing ads with repetition.
Major Indian Cricket Team Sponsors and Their Marketing Transformation
ITC (Wills) – The Foundation Era of Cricket Sponsorship
Timeline: 1993 – 2001
Brand Promoted: Wills / Wills Sport
In the 1990s Doordarshan era, when cricket united millions of Indian households, ITC Limited strategically aligned its Wills brand with Indian cricket.
The sponsorship investments were then viewed as multi-crore investments - big at the time.
Cricket also assisted ITC in repositioning Wills, though a brand based on one category of products, to a diversified lifestyle brand - one of the first brands in India to undergo image repositioning via sports marketing.
Cricket didn’t just give visibility — it enabled brand reinvention.
Sahara India Pariwar – The Most Recognizable Jersey Era
Timeline: 2001 – 2013
Sahara India Pariwar has been the name associated with Indian cricket over a period of ten years. Subsequent extensions of the contract reportedly reached around ₹485 crore and preceding contracts were in excess of ₹3 crore per match, and this made it one of the largest investments of the time in sports sponsorship.
Sahara was at its pitch at billions in value, and was a formidable Indian conglomerate. The decade-long of stability demonstrated that:
Association that is long term develops more trust than short term campaigns. Although this was later regulatory issues that affected its overall business, the era of cricket continues to be one of the most well known jersey sponsorships in India.
Star Sports – Broadcasting Dominance Through Cricket Rights
Timeline: 2014 – 2017
Star Sports transformed the economics of cricket by having ownership of the screen as opposed to the logo sponsors. It made cricket a huge revenue and subscriptions machine by acquiring ICC and BCCI media rights worth thousands of crores.
They didn’t place a logo on the jersey. They controlled the broadcast ecosystem.
This plan solidified Star’s as the leader in the sports media industry in India and reinvented the monetization of cricket.
OPPO – ₹1,079 Crore Smartphone Visibility Strategy
Timeline: 2017 – 2019
Chinese smartphone brand OPPO signed a five-year deal worth approximately ₹1,079 crore. The smart phone market in India was very competitive at this time.
India became one of the biggest markets of OPPO in the world.
However, as recognition improved with jersey visibility, geopolitical disputes and price wars ensued later putting the long-run market leadership at stake.
The immediate national presence and scale that cricket provided to OPPO was not going to last without long-term domination.
BYJU’S – EdTech Trust Acceleration
Timeline: 2019 – 2023
EdTech giant BYJU’S replaced OPPO in a transaction that is approximated to be of ₹1,079 crore.
Cricket enabled BYJU to build trust at scale faster than digital advertisements do, which is extremely difficult to do through digital ads.
Even though subsequent business difficulties affected the valuation, the sponsorship period fitted well into its hyper-growth narrative.
Dream11 – ₹358 Crore Annual Legitimacy Boost
Timeline: 2023 – 2025
Fantasy sports platform Dream11 reportedly signed a ₹358-crore-year annual deal contract to become the main sponsor of Team India.
Unlike earlier sponsors focused purely on branding, Dream11 used cricket as a performance marketing engine — converting live match engagement directly into user acquisition.
Dream11 created a performance marketing engine with cricket unlike the previous sponsors who only aimed to brand themselves and therefore, live match engagement directly translated into user acquisition. Cricket emerged as an instrument of growth.
Apollo Tyres – Performance Branding Through Cricket
Timeline: 2025 – 2027
Apollo Tyres leveraged cricket partnerships to reinforce performance, durability, and international quality positioning.
Apollo established permanent brand value through its cricket based marketing approach which differed from the app download methods used by technology and startup sponsors.
Cricket served as a platform which enabled brands to establish continuous market authority while their performance-based growth development progressed.
How Sponsorship Translates Into Market Share Growth
Within brands, a regular trend is observed:
- Subconscious brand memory is created through repeated jersey visibility.
- Emotional victories pass over trust to the sponsor.
- The impressions with high frequency of broadcasting lowers the cost of acquiring customers in the long run.
Cricket sponsorship functions as:
- A mass awareness engine
- A credibility accelerator
- A premium positioning tool
Lessons that Businesses can take away in the light of Indian Cricket Sponsorship.
What Businesses Can Learn From Indian Cricket Sponsorship
- Cultural association builds trust faster than traditional advertising.
- Long-term alliances do better than one-shot recalls.
- The visibility should match the stage of growth.
- Sponsorship is most effective when it has operational scale support.
The Indian cricket team is also one of the strongest platforms of transfer of trust in world sports marketing.
Digital Marketing Strategy Lessons from Indian Cricket Sponsorship
There is more than branding play to Indian cricket sponsorship: it is a digital marketing strategy masterclass in scale.
When Team India is sponsored by the brands, they do not expect their visibility on the jersey. The major lesson of digital marketing here is that it is as simple as:
- The amplification of social media on live matches.
- Influencer partnerships with players and creators.
- Timely moment marketing on Instagram and twitter.
- Performance advertisements were in line with tournament spikes.
- Redirecting campaigns at high-viewership events.
The key digital marketing strategy lesson here is simple:
Digital conversion funnels need to be backed by mass visibility.
Such brands as OPPO, BYJU, and Dream11 merged:
- Television exposure
- OTT visibility
- App download campaigns
- Data-driven remarketing
This integration will make brand awareness become quantifiable customer acquisition and revenue increase.
Cricket created attention. Digital marketing strategy converted that attention into profits.
Overall Summary
Since ITC diversified its brand in the 1990s to Dream11 pushing its digital credibility in the 2020s, the sponsorship of Indian cricket has demonstrated the same thing time and again:
It is not an expense. It is a strategic brand equity investment.
