As England cricket fans celebrate victory over India in the First Test in Chennai, the ICC has announced Byju's, India's largest EdTech company, as their global partner from 2021 to 2023.

Byju's is a tutoring app that offers initially free access to educational content for certain year groups in India and also trains students for examinations, utilising digital animation videos.

The company claims a user base of 40 million, including 3 million annual paid subscribers.

"We are excited to partner with ICC in championing world cricket", said Byju Raveendran (below), Founder and CEO of Byju's. "Sports is a big part of life for most Indians and cricket, in particular, holds a very special place in our hearts. It is a matter of pride for us as an Indian company to represent our nation on a global platform like this".

"Just as cricket inspires billions across the world", he added, "we too as a learning company hope to inspire the love of learning in every child's life".

The three-year agreement will see Byju's partner all ICC events over the period, including the forthcoming ICC Men's T20 World Cup in India, and the ICC Women's Cricket World Cup in New Zealand. As a global partner, Byju's will have extensive in-venue, broadcast, and digital rights across all ICC events.

Assuming government restrictions allow, the ICC World Test Championship is set to take place in England in June 2021. A three-match men's ODI series will take place against Sri Lanka, with matches scheduled to take place in Durham, at The Oval and in Bristol. The women's side is scheduled to play ODI and T20I series against South Africa and New Zealand. Further men's matches will take place against Pakistan and India.

In addition to the integrated brand presence at some of the world's biggest sporting events, Byju's will work closely with the ICC to deepen engagement with fans through the creation of innovative campaigns. In August 2019, the company became the official jersey partners of the Indian cricket team.

Manu Sawhney, Chief Executive, ICC, was upbeat about the new sponsorship deal: "We are excited to have Byju's on board as one of our global partners and look forward to having a great innings together. Cricket is a sport where resilience, perseverance and conviction are crucial qualities and the partnership with Byju's will allow that to be fostered by a wider audience both young and old".

"Byju's has been an ardent supporter of cricket in India and we are glad to be partnering with a strong, young, and dynamic Indian brand that has been inspiring millions of students to dream big. We look forward to the successful convergence of education and sports and hope to reach the hearts and minds of millions of young cricketing enthusiasts through this partnership".

Image credit: cherian_in - https://www.flickr.com/people/11665433@N02; source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Byju_Raveendran_CEO_Byju%27s.jpg#filelinks; licensed under Attribution 2.0 generic - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en