Sponsors hit a six with India''s win ICC World Twenty20

New Delhi: With the nail biting, edge-of-the-seat finish to the ICC World Twenty20, most advertisers wouldn''t have minded jumping onto the field to join in the celebrations.

According to Sundar Raman, managing director, MindShare, media buying agency of WPP, the India-Pakistan final is proof of the far improved ability of the Indian team to win a match. He opines that having reproved its ability to be a crowd puller, advertisers who had earlier walked away from cricket will now have their confidence restored in investing in it.

Broadcaster ESPN Star Sports may have surfed the wave of almost unprecedented viewer-ship. Nimbus Communications, which owns the rights to cricket played in the country, and is scheduled to telecasting the next home series where India meets Pakistan and Australia, will most definitely be more optimistic about their future than before the final of the ICC World Twenty20.

According to Haresh Thawani, chief at Nimbus, the erstwhile lacklustre and disappointing one-day cricket, India''s performance in the Twenty20 makes for excellent emotional connect of fans with the brands associated with the game. Advertisers can now be rest assured of a new crop of cricket heroes, given the impending exit of well-known cricketers in the future.

For the members of the Indian cricket team, the $490,000 as the winner''s cheque, plus a $2 million from BCCI, and Rs1 crore for Yuvraj, can be only the beginning of cash flows with impending brand endorsement contracts.