- Chinese Mobile Brand Vivo pulls out of Title Sponsorship From IPL 2020 due to ongoing tension between India and China on the borders.
Chinese Mobile Brand Vivo pulls out of Title Sponsorship From IPL 2020 due to ongoing tension between India and China on the borders.
With this season, the Indian Premier League will have a new standalone sponsor after VIVO has agreed to take a break from their sponsorship obligations in 2020 in the face of increasing tensions at the border between India and China. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in India, IPL 2020 will be played in the United Arab Emirates from 19 September.
In their term, VIVO has 3 years left, which they will fulfill instead in 2021, 2022 and 2023. The Chinese cell phone maker VIVO is the title sponsor of IPL and charges the BCCI Rs 440 crore per year for the 5-year contract they bagged in 2017 by bidding a whopping Rs 2,199 crores in 2017.
The BCCI will float a tender for the new sponsorship within the next 3 days.
The IPL governing council and Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) faced backlash on Monday after they decided to retain the Chinese mobile company as title sponsors of IPL 2020.
The BCCI and IPL Governing Council had not taken an appeal at their last meetings for VIVO to be title sponsors. It has contributed to demonstrations and demands by some right-wing groups to boycott the IPL, following which the decision has been made.
This will be a one-year pullout, which will be viewed as a moratorium period and if relationships strengthen, BCCI will look at revised terms to ink a fresh three-year contract with the company between 2021 and 2023. This year, the IPL will take place in the UAE from September 19 through November 10.
“There’s a lot of negative feelings towards Chinese firms and it’s likely to develop, so both the sponsor and BCCI feel it’s going to be best to take a break and wait for the situation to change,” a source said.
Other IPL-companies — Paytm, Swiggy, Dream 11 — have Chinese investment. The teams are gaining Chinese sponsorship too, not just the IPL.
59 Chinese smartphone applications have already been barred by the Indian government. Calls for boycott of Chinese goods have stepped up after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the June 15 Galwan Valley clash.
