BCCI President Sourav Ganguly referred the suspension of IPL title sponsorship deal with the Chinese smartphone brand Vivo as just a ‘blip’. He clarified and firmly mentioned it to not lead to any “financial crisis”.
“I wouldn’t call it as a financial crisis, It’s just a little bit of a blip,” Ganguly said while speaking during a webinar on Saturday, organized by Learnflix, an education app in India. “BCCI, it’s a very strong foundation – the game, the players, the administrators in the past have made this game so strong that BCCI is able to handle all these blips,” he added. The BCCI and Vivo on Thursday mutually took to suspend their partnership for IPL 2020. The decision taken is in line with the boycott of Chinese products in the wake of the Sino-India border stand-off.
Vivo won the title sponsorship rights of IPL 2020. IPL makes a significant revenue amount through title sponsorship. Vivo’s estimated amount was Rs 2190 crore from 2018 to 2022. This calculates to about Rs 440 crore per year.
Ganguly also briefly stated on ICC’s decision to retain India as hosts for the 2021 men’s T20 World Cup. He said, “India was designated (to host) the 2021 and 2023 World Cups so there is not a big change in that. Yes, the COVID situation had kept everybody alarmed, but that’s the way it is.”
