Indian Cricket Owes a Lot to Ratan Tata

Mumbai: Legendary industrialist, visionary and philanthropist, Ratan Tata, who breathed his last on Wednesday also helped a lot for the uplift of sports especially cricket in India.

He extended support to cricket through sponsorships of the Tata Group at some difficult times and also supported budding cricketers.

The Tata Group boosted Women’s cricket in India. It sponsored the Women’s Premier League when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) launched the league in 2023 and it will be sponsoring the WPL until 2027.

Tata Group launched the Titan Cup in 1996.

After the Chinese company Vivo withdrew its IPL title sponsorship in 2020, the Tata Group jumped to the T20 league’s rescue. Ahead of the 2024 IPL, Tata secured a record-breaking 4-year deal worth Rs 2,500 crore with the league.

Former India cricketer Farokh Engineer was supported by Tata Motors while Air India, also a Tata Group company, helped former cricket stars Mohinder Amarnath, Sanjay Manjrekar, Robin Uthappa, and VVS Laxman.

Indian Airlines, another organisation linked to the Tata Group, supported cricketers Javagal Srinath, Harbhajan Singh, Yuvraj Singh, and Mohammed Kaif.

Present cricket stars like Shardul Thakur (Tata Power) and Jayant Yadav (Air India) are getting support of the Tata Group in their sporting journey.

These companies, under the Tata Group, employed cricketers without compromising on their sporting endeavours.