CEAT CRICKET AWARD SPONSORSHIP IN THE BALANCE

The CEAT Sponsorship of the Sri Lanka Cricket Awards is on the rocks and organisers Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) have decided to make demand for a 33 percent increase in the sponsorship figure for the next two years.

CEAT sponsored the 2012 event which was held on September 5 this year at a figure of Rs. six million.

But the SLC has decided to ask for an increased figure of Rs. eight million and only offer the sponsorship to CEAT if they meet the demand.

SLC Marketing Division has informed the SLC Ex Co that the figure of Rs. six million was insufficient and that they had a shortfall of Rs. 110,000.

“We recommend that tenders be called for next three years keeping a benchmark value of Rs. Eight million plus taxes for the first year in order to cover all event related expenses and achieve a surplus to be utilized by SLC for non-event related matters” SLC Marketing Division recommended.The Marketing Division wanted fresh bids called for the sponsorship as they had strongly felt that CEAT who had been the event sponsor for the past four years were in breach of the agreement they had signed. The SLC Marketing Division had pointed out that CEAT had breached the agreement by failing to confirm their sponsorship for the next two years within 15 days of the completion of the 2012 event, as per the requirement.

For that reason, the agreement will be deemed to be discontinued for the balance two years till March 31, 2015 and SLC can invite fresh bids for three years, SLC Marketing Division felt.This requirement had been incorporated into the agreement at the insistence of the management of the CEAT Kelaniya under clause 13.5.

SLC Marketing Division had said that a manager at CEAT called Chanaka Tissera had sent them an email asking the 15-day period in the agreement to be amended to 45 days. However, no formal intimation on a letterhead had not been made. Thus failure to stick to the specific time period would be a breach of the agreement, they hhad claimed.

SLC Marketing Division had also informed the SLC Ex Co that CEAT was in breach of contract for player image rights.“They have placed billboards at strategic locations featuring Kumar Sangakkara sans any other member of the national team. (Which is direct breach of agreement which says that a minimum of three players should be featured in any and all promotional materials)” SLC Marketing Division observed.SLC Marketing Division had sought ExCo approval to publish newspaper advertisements to call for fresh sponsorships but the Ex Co has advised them to have another discussion with CEAT before taking a firm decision to cancel the current sponsorship.

CEAT Vice President of Sales and Marketing Ravi Dadlani said they are unaware of any SLC moves to cancel their sponsorship.