Byju's went bankrupt owing BCCI ₹158 crore for the Team India jersey

In March 2019, after OPPO's deal was cut short, edtech unicorn Byju's took the most visible sponsorship in Indian sport: its logo on the Indian cricket team's jersey. The rate reported by the Hindustan Times was ₹4.61 crore per bilateral match and ₹1.51 crore per match in an ICC event. When the initial term ended, the partnership ran on through an 18-month extension that, according to Adgully, was never put into a written contract.

The funding winter arrived before the extension did. Byju's — once valued at $22 billion — paid BCCI through September 2022, announced it would not renew, and in December 2022 terminated the extended deal early. The exposure kept running while the payments did not: the disputed unpaid period is October 2022 to March 2023, and the bill came to ₹158 crore, about $19 million.

BCCI did not chase the money with invoices. It issued a demand notice on 6 January 2023, and on 8 September 2023 the NCLT bench in Bengaluru registered an insolvency petition under India's bankruptcy code. On 16 July 2024 the tribunal ordered insolvency proceedings against Think and Learn, Byju's parent — the unpaid sponsorship was not the whole of the company's debts, but it was the petition that got there first.

The jersey had already moved on: Dream11 took over as Team India's sponsor at ₹358 crore for three years. Byju's later reached a settlement with BCCI that the NCLAT appellate tribunal approved. The brand that bought Indian cricket's credibility at its own peak spent its insolvency arguing over the bill for it.