Indian mobile company to sponsor tri-series in West Indies

St. John’s (Antigua) - Indian mobile phone company, Celkon Mobile will be the title sponsor the tri-nation series including India, Sri Lanka and the West Indies, starting next month in Jamaica.

The series, which runs from June 28 and July 11 will be known as the Celkon Mobile Cup.

“We are delighted to have Celkon Mobile on board as the sponsor of the Tri Series. The Celkon Mobile Cup is a high profile series for us with the participation of the ICC Cricket World Cup champions – India – and the World Cup finalist Sri Lanka in addition to our own ICC World Twenty20 champions West Indies,” WICB chief executive Michael Muirhead said on Sunday.

“These continue to be lean financial times but we have seen greater interest from the corporate sector in the area of sponsorship and we have seen an increase in interest in the sponsorship of West Indies cricket from the global corporate space.

“We thank Celkon Mobile for their investment in West Indies cricket and we are confident that their association with our strong cricket brand will be of benefit to them as a mobile handset and tablet manufacturer.”

Celkon’s sponsorship comes out of the WICB’s granting sponsorship rights for the series to another Indian-based company Technology Frontiers.

As a result of this partnership, WICB commercial manager Nelecia Yeates said for the first time in the region, all matches would have fully digitised perimeter advertising.

“This initiative takes us into a whole new realm of maximising our cricket branding for international matches and is one in which we will be looking to repeat and expand for future series as well,” Yeates pointed out.

The first three matches of the series will be played at Sabina Park in Kingston with the remaining four matches, including the final, carded for Queen’s Park Oval in Port-of-Spain.