BCCI To Decide On It’s Ties With Chinese Sponsorships
The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) is highly unlikely to cut ties with IPL title sponsors VIVO if the ‘exit clause’ favours the Chinese mobile phone makers, a senior BCCI official said. On June 19, IPL took to social media platform Twitter to state that there would be a meeting to review the tournament’s various sponsor deals.
Following the violent clash on June 15 in eastern Ladakh, the central government decided to ban 59 Chinese apps including the controversial TikTok. The BCCI official further said that the board never used the words ‘cancel’ or ‘terminate’ the deals.
"We still don't know about the fate of T20 World Cup, Asia Cup, so how can we just have a meeting? Yes, we need to discuss sponsorship but we never used the word cancel or terminate," a senior BCCI official, who also sits in IPL GC meetings.
"We said we will review sponsorship. Review means that we need to check all the modalities of the contract. If the 'Exit Clause' favours VIVO more, why should we terminate a Rs 440 crore per year contract? We will only terminate if 'Exit Clause' favours us," he added.
As per the report, some BCCI officials are of the view that the board should honour the contract, which ends in 2022, unless VIVO backs out. Termination of the contract could mean that the Indian cricket board may have to pay substantial compensation.
However, brands like PayTM, Dream XI, BYJUs and SWIGGY, who all have Chinese investors, might not have to worry as they are Indian entities.
"Taking note of the border skirmish that resulted in the martyrdom of our brave jawans, the IPL Governing Council has convened a meeting next week to review IPL's various sponsorship deals," the official IPL twitter handle had stated.
Interestingly, no meeting has been scheduled even after nearly two weeks of the tweet from IPL.
