Mumbai Indians-Videocon to sign 3-year lead sponsorship contract worth Rs 36 crore

However, the deal is not anywhere around, Nokia's lead sponsorship deal - at close to Rs 50 crore for a 3-year, with Shah Rukh Khan's Knight Riders, and neither close to Aircel deal - Rs 45 crore per year for 3 years, with MS Dhoni-led Chennai Super Kings. Both the deals took place in 2008.

The Videocon deal came two months after Idea Cellular broke the contract ' Rs 10-12 crore per year, with the team as Idea was dissatisfied with the association and was not getting the branding impact it had opted for, as stated by media. The Videocon official confirmed the development and said, "We are signing up with Mumbai Indians for 3 years, for about Rs 12 crore a year."

The lead sponsor gets display on front of players' jerseys, besides opportunities for on-field and on ground activation. As reported by media, on this, an official directly involved with IPL sponsorships said, "It's a good deal from Videocon's perspective because two additional teams will be added next year and the number of matches will also be higher. So valuations may increase next year."

Mumbai Indians', last year, other sponsors included - beverage and snacks maker PepsiCo, MasterCard, Adidas, Pernod Richard and Wrigley - chewing company which had signed up as sponsor for all 8 teams. However, the team management has not yet announced a final list of sponsors for IPL season 3.

Meanwhile, Knight Riders has changed its jersey colour from black-and-gold to purple to shore up merchandise sales. The team sponsors for IPL season 3 includes - Nokia, Coca-Cola's lemon drink Sprite, Triple X - energy drink, Reebok and Lux Cozy.