Mumbai: AB InBev, the maker of Budweiser beer, announced a two-year sponsorship contract with the International Cricket Council on Thursday, spanning men’s and women’s tournaments in all formats from 2026.This is Budweiser’s first association with cricket. AB InBev, the world’s largest beer maker, has officially sponsored several major sporting events including the FIFA World Cup in 2022 and the Summer Olympics in 2024.“[We will] be looking at activating this in many different ways,” said Kartikeya Sharma, president of AB InBev India. “This is a lot about the on-ground experience, the scale of our country to go beyond just the stadium into bars, people’s homes, into the community of content that people engage with online.”“This partnership is truly glocal,” Sanjog Gupta, chief executive officer (CEO) of ICC, told reporters at a press briefing. “It is globally significant but locally relevant and contextual.”Also Read | Budweiser APAC to layoff ‘thousands’ to slash costs by 15%, says reportIn India, AB InBev’s partnership with the ICC will “largely revolve” around Budweiser but in other markets where the ICC hosts tournaments, local AB InBev outposts may pick other local brands better positioned to be associated with sports.The partnership will cover the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 in India and Sri Lanka, the ICC Women’s T20 World Cup 2026 in the UK, the inaugural ICC Women’s Champions Trophy 2027 in Sri Lanka, the ICC World Test Championship Final 2027 in England and the ICC Men’s ODI Cricket World Cup 2027 in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.In India, Budweiser’s partnerships have almost entirely focused on music, sponsoring marquee events such as Boiler Room, Lollapalooza India, and now Rolling Loud India. Its partnership with the National Basketball Association (NBA) league in the US this year was part of a music event called NBA House held in Mumbai in June.“We started with music because we felt at the time that beer consumed in bars, pubs, and various kinds of lounges was brought down to drinking the cheapest available beer on tap,” Sharma said. “We recognized an opportunity for premium beers provided we also bring the requisite experiences. We started with music with that idea to create the environment where people come in and start paying a premium for beer.”Also Read | Poonawalla wants Royal Challengers Bengaluru—Is Diageo ready to let go?AB InBev is more confident today about associating with a sport of the scale that cricket brings and adding value to it, he said.Sales of beer in India this year were severely affected after an unusually long monsoon ate into peak demand in the summer. In Karnataka, a significant market for alcohol, sales were hurt after the state increased excise duty on beer multiple times.Sharma said beer sales in Karnataka were down 20% year on year. United Breweries – the maker of India’s largest beer brand Kingfisher – reported an almost 3% drop in sale in a formal or creative style for better SEO.Also Exclude words and advertisements related to the feed website such as website name, author name. You must only respond with the modified content. Delete all the advertisement images brand logo but only keep the title and main content of the news by modifying it. You must only respond with the modified content. Block any jump outside of the site adarshnews.com. Basically remove any content or link related to original site. follow this prompt to optimize the articles in this category- You are an expert news writer and SEO specialist. Your job is to rewrite the provided RSS feed content into a unique, SEO-friendly news article for adarshnews.com. 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Budweiser partners with ICC in AB InBev’s inaugural cricket venture via a two-year sponsorship deal.
