MUMBAI: India‘s poor performance on the home soil notwithstanding, the ad inventory for the India-Australia Test series has completely been sold out.

Star Sports, the official broadcaster of the series, has roped in 12 sponsors for the series that includes two-wheeler automobile major Hero MotoCorp as joint-presenting sponsor.

Tata Teleservices and Havells are the other two joint-presenting sponsors while Maruti Suzuki, Nokia, JK Cement, Max India, Panasonic India, Bharti Axa, Samsung Camera, Perfetti and Karbonn Tablet are the associate sponsors.

Hero which was the official on-ground sponsor of Indian Premier League (IPL) and ICC events, had decided not to renew deals for these two properties. The company had also pulled out of its sponsorship of iconic IPL team Mumbai Indians.

Star Sports spokesperson said, “ We are completely sold out for the India Australia Test series. In fact, over the last 2-3 days we have said no to multiple clients who were keen to leverage the forthcoming test series because we don’t have any inventory left with us.”

Platinum Media CEO Basabdutta Chowdhury said that the ad rates for the series fall in the range of Rs 55,000-65,000. Joint-presenting sponsors are paying Rs 40 million each while the associate sponsors are forking out Rs 30 million.

"The rates for a England, Australia or a South Africa are on par while there is a premium attached to an India-Pakistan series," she said.

The first Test will be played in Chennai from 22-26 February, second at Hyderabad from 2-6 March, third at Mohali from 14-18 March and the last will be played at Delhi on 22-26 March.