CMDA auctions its cricket team to Abee Consumables

Pune

April 2, 2008

Shahrukh Khan did it. Vijay Mallya did it. Preity Zinta and Ness Wadia did
it. And now Abee Consumables has done it too. The craze to own a team is not
limited to only the rich and the famous in the country.

At a recent meeting of Pune's Computer Media Dealers Association (CMDA),
when talk turned to sponsoring the body's cricket team, BB Somani of Abee
Consumables immediately took the gauntlet of owning the team for three years.
Though the final amount for the ownership of the team has not been finalized, it
is expected to be around Rs 2 lakh.

For this amount, the Pune cricket team will sport Abee's logo on its sports
gear and all collateral that is created for future matches. Recently, this team
won two local tournaments-one against L&T Infotech and the other against
Cognizant.

“We have to make a final decision about the financial and other management
initiatives of this endeavor, which is unique and the first of its kind in the
Indian IT community,” said Sunil Gugale, President, CMDA.

Besides this, the association has several other activities underway. It will
set-up a library that will stock business, lifestyle, non-fiction, self-help,
fiction and other ranges of books for its members. Already books worth Rs 1 lakh
have been purchased, and a CMDA member has donated a library management software
to track who has books and the amount each reader will have to pay.

The IT mall that was proposed by CMDA and that will be constructed by DSK
Builders is also waiting finalization of location. So far, the builder has
suggested three sites and in the next meeting a decision will be taken on the
final site. Interestingly, over 109 members of the association have already
signed applications evincing their interest to own shops in the mall.

The association will also be coming out with CMDA Times, a monthly newsletter
for its members that will give details of the activities conducted and planned
by it. Besides this, there will be announcements about product launches and
industry news. “The content will be outsourced to an agency and we will
monitor its quality regularly,” added Gugale.

Moreover, the body will hold health camps on April 11 and 12, 2008 for its
members where they can avail free health checkup. Specialized health packages
are also available at discounted rates for those members who wish to go for it.