Photo caption: R.S. Sodhi, MD, Amul, and Black Caps team members showing the new jersey
By: Gurbir Singh, New Zealand
India’s largest dairy cooperative giant, Amul will be the official sponsor of the New Zealand cricket team, Black Caps in the ICC Champions Trophy that starts in England on 1st June.
The ICC Champions Trophy features the leading eight teams and is being hosted by England and Wales from 1st to 18th June.
The Amul logo will adorn the new black jersey of Black Caps on its chest, sleeve and on the training kits throughout the 18-day tournament.
The announcement to sponsor New Zealand Cricket team, was first tweeted by Amul in the early hours of 13th May and subsequently announced by R.S. Sodhi, MD of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation at a press conference in Kolkata.
“Coming from a strong farming and cooperative dairy culture, the New Zealand association is a perfect fit, reflecting our quality and values,” Mr Sodhi is quoted to have said.
Both New Zealand and India have common connections in dairy. New Zealand processes 20.7 billion litres of milk and is the world’s largest exporter of dairy products, but is only the 9th largest producer worldwide.
Amul,on the other hand, is India's largest food product marketing organisation with annual turnover (2016-17) US$ 4.1 billion. The Amul model has helped India to emerge as the largest milk producer in the world.
This will be the first time that Amul is sponsoring any New Zealand sports. Such partnerships between two countries are likely to further cement their ties in future.
--Gurbir Singh is a New Zealand-based freelance feature writer & journalist. he can be contacted at: gurbir@journalist.com