Sindhu signs Rs 50 crore deal with Chinese sports brand

New Delhi: Olympic and World Championship silver medallist PV Sindhu has signed a whopping four-year sports sponsorship deal of Rs 50 crore with Chinese sports brand Li-Ning.

The record deal comes after compatriot Kidambi Srikanth was offered a cool Rs 35 crore over a period of four years by the Chinese company last month.

“Sindhu’s deal is one of the biggest in world badminton. It is close to Rs 50 crore for sponsorship and equipment,” Mahender Kapoor, director, Sunlight Sports Private Limited, the multi-national exclusive partner of Li-Ning in India, told PTI.

“It will be a deal which is very close to Puma’s deal with Indian cricketer Virat Kohli in terms of yearly sponsorship. Sindhu will get Rs 40 crore as sponsorship while the rest will be for equipment, so it is close to Rs 50 crore,” Kapoor claimed.

In 2017, Puma had signed Kohli for reported Rs 100 crore endorsement deal for a period of eight years, which came down to Rs 12.5 crore per year.

Sindhu, who rose to stardom after becoming the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the Rio Olympics, was listed as the world’s seventh-highest paid sportswoman on the Forbes list last year.

This is Li-Ning’s second stint with Sindhu, who was with them for two years in 2014-2015 for a sum of Rs 1.25 crore a year.

In 2016, Sindhu was back with Yonex for a Rs 3.5 crore per year contract for a period of three years.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Kashmir Monitor staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)