Nepal cricket body seals record sponsorship deal

The Cricket Association of Nepal has signed a record sponsorship deal with state-owned telecommunications company Nepal Telecom.

The deal will run for three years, from 2015 to 2017, and is reportedly worth NPR15.5m (€146,000/$155,000) – a record sum for the national governing body and Nepalese sport as a whole.

Under the agreement, Nepal’s national men’s and women’s teams will carry the Nepal Telecom logo on their playing kits.

As part of the deal, a new annual Twenty20 tournament called the Nepal Telecom Championship Trophy will also be launched.

“The involvement of big companies such as Nepal Telecom will give confidence to other players in the market to invest in cricket,” Bhawana Ghimire, the governing body’s chief executive, told the ESPNCricinfo website.

Ghimire added that CAN’s previous sponsorship deal with Pepsi and Standard Chartered was worth around $30,000 annually.