Mark McCormack's International Management Group, which will conduct the series under the aegis of the International Cricket Council, has announced that Sahara India will be the official sponsors of the series for the next five years.

From next year the Sahara Cup will be played in either August or September in Canada.

IMG, the Board of Cricket Control for India and the Pakistan Cricket Board have jointly conceived a series of cricket matches to be played between India and Pakistan which will symbolise the relationship between the two countries.

The tournament is being played under the auspices of the Canadian Cricket Association and has been accorded full one day status by the ICC.

Sahara India will have exclusive title rights to the tournament for five years with the option to reconsider association beyond that period.

The matches shall be telecast in most cricket playing nations. Television coverage of the tournament will be produced by Transworld International, IMG's television division, the world's largest independent producer of sports programming.

Peter Hutton, head of TVI in India, says, ``we will cover every ball of every game using a camera state-of-the-art outside broadcast unit. The commentary team will include Ravi Shastri and Harsha Bhogle and coverage will be shown in India on ESPN. Thirty five hours live and each match will be repeated totalling another 35 hours.''