Record ₹50 crore deal for Sindhu

NEW DELHI: Olympic and World Championship silver medallist P V Sindhu has signed a whopping four-year sports sponsorship deal in the tune of ~50 crore with Chinese sports brand Li Ning. The record deal comes after compatriot Kidambi Srikanth was offered ~35 crore over a period of four years by the Chinese company last month. “Sindhu’s deal is one of the biggest in world badminton. It is close to ~50 crore for sponsorship and equipment,” Mahender Kapoor, director, Sunlight Sports Pvt Ltd, the exclusive partner of Li-ning in India, said.

“It will be a deal which is very close to Puma’s deal with Indian cricketer Virat Kohli in terms of yearly sponsorship. Sindhu will get ~40 crore as sponsorship while the rest will be for equipment, so it is close to ~50 crore,” Kapoor claimed. In 2017, Puma had signed Kohli for reported deal of ~100 crore endorsement deal for a period of eight years, which came down to 12.5 crore per year.

Sindhu, who rose to stardom after becoming the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, was listed as the world’s seventh-highest paid sportswoman on the Forbes list last year.

This is Li-ning’s second stint with Sindhu, who was with them for two years in 2014-2015 for a sum of ~1.25 crore a year.

In 2016, Sindhu was back with Yonex for a ~3.5 crore per year contract for a period of three years. Li-ning also roped in men’s doubles pair of Manu Attri and B Sumeeth Reddy for a deal of ~4 crore each for two years, while former CWG champion Parupalli Kashyap has been offered a ~8 crore deal for two years.