It is learnt that Sahara’s bid was Rs 2.35 crore per match while Star India’s winning bid is Rs 1.92 crore. A Sahara official, who was present in Chennai for the opening of the bids, told MiD DAY: “On Saturday we decided to bid for the sponsorship rights after a deluge of calls to our chairman Subrato Roy from current and former India cricketers.u00a0

We checked with the BCCI and they said we can bid. Just an hour before the bids were to be opened, we were told that due to a clause in the tender document, we do not qualify for the bid. The clause was related to the bidder’s legal disputes with the BCCI.

“We raised our objection before all the marketing committee members. We told them that if there is a dispute then why is the BCCI still carrying Sahara’s logo on Team India’s shirt? They had no answer. All they said is that it is a separate clause.”u00a0