Allied Bank become co-sponsors

Allied Bank (ABL) have paid one million US dollars to become one of the co-sponsors of the Pakistan-India series, a top bank official said here on Saturday. Naveed Masud, ABL's Senior Executive Vice President, told reporters that ABL has signed an agreement with Nimbus Sports, a move that marks the bank's arrival as a sponsor of a major international sports event.

ABL has come under the microscope for closing down its sports department last year but Naveed said that the move does not mean that the bank has stopped supporting sports. "We have changed our policy and now rather than supporting individuals, we are spending our sports funds to sponsor events." Naveed said that sponsoring sports events like the Pakistan-India series would give "us a lot of mileage". He asserted that ABL would continue investing funds in the sponsorship of sports in the coming years.

Meanwhile, after signing the contract, ABL has joined Allianz, Hutch and Grassim Cement as sponsors of the Pakistan-India series. Allianz are the title sponsors for the three-match Test series while Hutch are the lead sponsors for the five-match ODI contest.

"The decision to sponsor the India-Pakistan 2006 series was taken with the knowledge of the passion of the game shared by both the nations and our intention to be an active part of the same," said Khalid Sherwani, ABL President, in a media statement. A Nimbus official welcomed ABL's entry as one of the series sponsors. "Allied Bank has beaten Indian banking sponsors to the line on this series -- one of most important events in the cricket calendar in 2006," said the official.