India lose Avantha Masters due to economic crisis

New Delhi: India will not be hosting $2.3 million Avantha Masters from next year after the sponsors - Avantha Group - decided against renewing the contract with the European tour because of current economic condition.

The Avantha Group had been the sponsors of the tri-sanctioned event in New Delhi for the last four years but it would no longer be sponsoring the prestigious tournament from next season.

"Having successfully hosted the prestigious Avantha Masters for four consecutive years, the Avantha Group has concluded that in order to attract top talent, both the timing of the event in the golf calendar along with a substantial prize money increase will be required," the company said in a statement.

"Given the current economic conditions, the Avantha Group has concluded that this is not the appropriate moment to do so and has therefore not renewed its contract with the European Tour," it added.

India is going through its worst economic crisis in decades and it has affected various sporting events like Indian Premier League and Indian badminton League as well.

Avantha Group, however, said: "We are very satisfied in the conduct of the European Tour and would continue to explore other golf events and formats.

"We reiterate our firm commitment to the development and growth of professional golf in India."

With Avantha Masters out of the Indian calender from next year, the country will now be hosting just three Asian Tour events: the $1.25 million Indian Open and two $300,000 tournaments - the SAIL-SBI Open and the Panasonic Open.

PGTI director Padamjit Sandhu said Avantha groups had communicated the decision last month.

"We were informed of the decision a few weeks ago," Sandhu said.

"These are challenging times, PGTI is currently in talks with existing and potential partners, and we are confident that we will ride the tide over the next six to nine months.

Indian golf has extremely strong potential, and our long term outlook remains strong and positive."

Sandhu said: "The focus now will be to create more opportunities and formats to attract top players to play more events in India, and simultaneously take the sport to the grass root level and have young talented players take up the sport professionally."