Suryakumar Yadav-led India likely to play Asia Cup 2025 without team sponsor

Suryakumar Yadav-led India will likely to play the upcoming edition of the Asia Cup 2025 without a lead sponsor on their jerseys after Dream11's withdrawal from its deal with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) last month due to India's new law against betting and gambling. 

The BCCI has started the process of gaining a new sponsor as they released an invitation for expression of interest for the lead sponsorship rights for the national team. The last date for interested parties to purchase this invitation of interest is September 12, and the bid submission deadline is September 16. The Asia Cup 2025 is scheduled to start from September 9 and conclude on September 28.

Dream11 withdrew its deal with the BCCI after the Indian government's passage of the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Bill last month, which prohibits real-money gaming.

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Following this development, Dream11 communicated to the BCCI that it would have to pull out of the deal, which had an exit clause in place to account for such government regulations. Dream11's contract was until 2026 and was worth 44 million USD (Rs 358 crore approximately), as per ESPNCricinfo.

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Before this, OPPO, a mobile phone company, had withdrawn from the contract three years before it was scheduled to end, back in 2019. The education technology company Byju's was India's sponsor before Dream 11's successful bid for a three-year bid in 2023. 

In their invitation for expression of interest for team sponsor, BCCI also specified that brands related to alcohol, betting or gambling services, cryptocurrency, online money gaming, tobacco brands, or any product or service likely to "offend public morals, such as, including but not limited to, pornography" were ineligible to submit a bid.
 
India will start their Asia Cup 2025 campaign on September 10 against the UAE. The tournament's high-voltage clash between India and Pakistan will take place on September 10, and both matches will take place at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai. India will play their final group stage fixture against Oman on September 19 in Abu Dhabi.

Team India squad for Asia Cup:
 
Surya Kumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC), Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav, Sanju Samson (WK), Harshit Rana, Rinku Singh
 
Reserve players:
Prasidh Krishna, Washington Sundar, Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Yashasvi Jaiswal.