Tea Board gets sporty as Official International Partner for National Cricket Team

•  Government body extends sponsorship for sports forthe first time in Sri Lanka

• Never before has SL Cricket had two sponsors

By Shabiya Ali Ahlam

Sri Lanka Tea Board (SLTB) yesterday became the first ever state entity to extend its funds to sponsor a sport on a long-term basis securing a Rs. 615 million deal as the Official International Partner for the country’s National Cricket Team.

The three year sponsorship contract is for both men’s and women’s national cricket teams will be for all forms of the game that will be played overseas.

With a cheque of Rs. 205 million being handed over to Sri Lanka Cricket yesterday, officials of SLTB expressed that the balance payment would be made in two more tranches starting from June 2014.

This also being the first time that the game has had two sponsors, with SLTB having lost to Dialog Axiata to be the National Cricket Team Sponsor, Sri Lanka Cricket revealed that the decision to take SLTB onboard as the second sponsor was to give due recognition to the Ceylon Tea brand.

Tea Board...

Minister of Sports Mahindananda Aluthgamage said at a press conference held yesterday that Sri Lanka Cricket did not give priority to the funds that they would gain out of the joint venture with SLTB but would focus on uplifting the identity of the country’s tea brand.

”If we had partnered with a private sector organisation we would have received more in terms of money, but we chose to compromise since we prefer to put the national interest first,” he said.

Aluthgamage affirmed that Sri Lanka Cricket would guarantee the doubling of foreign exchange within the three-year period with this initiative.

Meanwhile, Minister of Plantation Mahinda Samarasinghe expressed that with Sri Lanka’s two best global brands, Ceylon Tea and Sri Lanka Cricket, joining hands, “remarkable outcomes can be achieved with a win-win situation for both”.

SLTB Director Promotions Hasitha De Alwis told the Daily FT that if the opportunity was managed well, the initiative would give tremendous mileage for Ceylon Tea.

“It is not only where matches are played, as it will be played in a countries that may not be our focus markets. It is about the number of viewers who will be enjoying the sport worldwide though different media channels,” he said and stressed that the indirect mileage of repeat telecast should be taken into account while measuring the exposure that would be gained.