Bangladesh Cricket Board cancelled its contract with Aamby Valley, an affiliate of Sahara Parivar, 15 months before it was scheduled to end, reports ESPNcricinfo on Friday.

The board is now looking for a new team sponsor for the home series against Pakistan this month.

ESPNcricinfo said the BCB sold team sponsorship rights to Aamby Valley in June 2012, in a $14 million four-year deal that was the biggest in Bangladesh cricket. The contract was supposed to end in June 2016 but a BCB advertisement in a national daily on 30 March marked the end of the alliance.

Chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury confirmed the BCB had ended the contract with Sahara, but did not want to disclose the financial implications of the termination.

‘We have decided not to continue our contract with Sahara,’ Nizamuddin told ESPNcricinfo. ‘That's why we have given an advertisement for a new team sponsor for the Pakistan series. We cannot speak about the deal [with Sahara] at this moment.’

Sahara's financial difficulties over the past year have been a matter of public record, with India's Supreme Court ordering the group head to remain in its custody pending trial.

In 2012, Sahara had outbid Grameenphone, who had sponsored the Bangladesh team for eight years. Sahara had also won branding rights for the national team and the national cricket academy, and title sponsorship and in-stadia sponsorship for 2012-13, reports ESPNcricinfo.

BCB has asked the new bidders to include an irrevocable bank guarantee of 50% of the total offered value, which will be considered as a security deposit. The company that wins the rights has to pay the full quoted amount before the signing of the agreement. It has to be completed by 12 April.