Team India, flying high on the wings of success, will now take off on Apollo Tyres. On Tuesday, the BCCI announced that Apollo Tyres will replace Dream11 as Team India’s new jersey sponsor. Team India is currently playing in the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 in the UAE with jerseys without any sponsor’s name.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India has signed a three-year contract with Apollo Tyres, in exchange for which Apollo Tyres will pay it a hefty sum of ₹579 crore. Apollo Tyres’ success story is quite unique. You might be surprised to learn that Apollo Tyres was once in such dire straits that its owners were willing to sell the company for just ₹1. However, the company recovered from that situation and today boasts a market value of approximately ₹31,000 crore. Let us tell you the story of this company.
‘Refugee’ built a company worth thousands of crores
The founder of Apollo Tyres was Sardar Raunak Singh, who had to leave everything in Sialkot and come to India as a refugee due to the partition at the time of independence. Sialkot is now in Pakistan. Raunak Singh came to India and started afresh. He started the pipe business. Apart from this, he did many other businesses. In the year 1972, he prepared to enter the tyre manufacturing sector and the foundation of Apollo Tyres was laid. Today, the net worth of Apollo Tyres is estimated to be around Rs 31,099 crore.
The company got stuck in nationalisation
Soon after the start of Apollo Tyres, Raunak Singh got stuck in trouble when the central government started nationalising private companies and banks, that is, the government started taking them over. Due to this, multinational companies like Coca Cola and IBM in the country also had to pack up and run away. The employee union of Apollo Tyres also started a movement to hand over the company to the government.
He got the company, but with poverty
Ronak Singh went to court against the nationalization of the company and won the case and got the right to remain the owner of Apollo Tyres. Although he got the company back, he got stuck in extreme poverty. Actually, due to the long-running union strike, the company went into huge losses. The condition of the company became so bad that he decided to sell it for just Rs 1. However, after recovering from this shock, he strengthened the condition of the company again and today it is worth thousands of crores.
BCCI will get more money than before
According to the information given by BCCI, Apollo Tyres’ contract with Team India is about Rs 200 crore more than Dream11. Dream11 had made a deal with BCCI for Rs 358 crore for 2.5 years, but since then Team India has won titles in T20 World Cup and Champions Trophy, and has also reached the final of ODI World Cup. Due to this, the fan following of the team has increased tremendously. This is the reason why Apollo Tyres has to pay around Rs 579 crore for this deal till March 2028.
How much will Apollo Tyres pay for each match?
Apollo Tyres will pay Rs 4.5 crore to BCCI for each match of Team India
Earlier, Dream 11 was paying Rs 4 crore for each match
121 bilateral matches and 21 ICC tournament matches will be played during this period
Under the 1+1 offer, Apollo Tyres logo will also be put on the jersey of the women’s team
BCCI had kept a base price of Rs 3.5 crore for bilateral matches and Rs 1.5 crore for ICC tournament matches
The post From Refugee Struggles to a ₹31,000 Crore Empire: Apollo Tyres signs ₹579 Crore deal as Team India’s Jersey Sponsor appeared first on Cricket Country.
