Asian Paints open to expanding BCCI deal into WPL and IPL: Amit Syngle

Cricket’s cultural and emotional force in India is the core reason Asian Paints has made one of its most ambitious sports marketing moves — a multi-year partnership with the BCCI as the Official Colour Partner for India Cricket. For the company, the association is not just a sponsorship but a storytelling canvas that sits naturally within the brand’s identity.

Amit Syngle, MD and CEO of Asian Paints, describes cricket as “a religion in India” and a platform that is “going to be omnipresent.” For a brand that has spent decades embedding itself inside Indian homes, the ability to ride on a national passion that reaches every household aligns closely with its Har Ghar positioning. “It gives us an opportunity to reach every Indian home, and it fits strongly with our whole positioning,” Syngle says.

The company sees cricket as a natural companion to its category. Colour, he explains, is rooted in emotion and storytelling, and the world of cricket thrives on the same sentiments — anticipation, loyalty, identity, pride. “Whether you’re looking at painting or home décor, colour is about emotions. This partnership gives us leverage to innovate around that.”

This thinking has shaped the brand’s early initiatives: the Colour Cam, Colour Countdown, and other experiential elements that aim to inject Asian Paints’ personality into match moments. Syngle believes engagement itself becomes the first and most important metric. “The engagement will create the measurement,” he says. “How are we creating those emotions? A simple thing like a colour cam can reach every part of the country.”

For Asian Paints, ROI in cricket isn’t a conventional equation. It is expansive, layered, and designed to evolve. “It is literally an area of infinite ROI,” Syngle says, underscoring that the brand wants to unlock far more than logo visibility. Cricket, for the company, is a content ecosystem — not a placement.

The BCCI deal gives Asian Paints visibility across all India home matches, with the official colour partner logo appearing throughout the sponsorship ecosystem. This presence allows the brand to “weave” its story into the season-long rhythm of cricket rather than make episodic appearances. The company has long been associated with the IPL, and Syngle confirms that future engagement with properties like the WPL and IPL remains on the table, depending on strategic fit.

The broader ecosystem, he notes, is also shifting. Legacy brands have begun revisiting cricket and other high-value sports properties with renewed seriousness. Syngle calls this phase “a flutter,” suggesting that while it opens eyes to new possibilities, the industry is still in a transitional cycle of experimentation and innovation.

Asian Paints’ marketing spending reflects its confidence. The company has already increased ad spends substantially in the first half of the year, driven by its focus on brand building and media properties. “We will look at how we maximize our marketing efforts and spend more where needed,” Syngle says.

Ultimately, whether this becomes a case study for traditional brands entering sports is something Syngle leaves open. “We can only set a trend,” he says. “People have to make a case study out of it.”