VIVO pulls out of IPL 2020 sponsorship amid growing India-China tensions

The Indian Premier League will have a new standalone sponsor for this edition after VIVO decided to take a break from their sponsorship commitments in 2020 amid the rising tensions between India and China at the border. IPL 2020 will be played in the United Arab Emirates from September 19 due to the coronavirus crisis in India.

VIVO have 3 years left in their contract which they will honour in 2021, 2022 and 2023 instead. Chinese mobile phone maker VIVO is IPL's title sponsor and it pays the BCCI Rs 440 crore annually for the 5-year deal which they bagged in 2017 by bidding a whopping Rs 2,199 crores in 2017.

In the next 3 days, the BCCI is going to float a tender for the new sponsorship.

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.

Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM), the Economic wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had even stated in an earlier interview with India Today that if the IPL goes ahead with its decision to keep VIVO on board then it will be forced to give a call to boycott the popular cricket tournament.

"We urge Government of India that it should warn IPL Council and if they don’t comply then Government should withdraw recognition to the



tournament.

"IPL Governing Council’s decision condemnable and if IPL Governing Council goes ahead with its decision then we will have to appeal people to boycott IPL," SJM national co-convener Dr. Ashwani Mahajan had said.

Dr. Mahajan also added that the IPL Governing Council has gone against the mood of the country by allowing Chinese sponsors. He said that the government is doing what it can to restrict Chinese entities in India, but people and institutions also should share this responsibility.

Other companies involved in the IPL -- Paytm, Swiggy, Dream 11 -- have Chinese investments. Not just the IPL, the teams too attract Chinese sponsorship.

The Indian government has already banned 59 Chinese mobile applications. Calls for boycotting Chinese products have intensified after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the Galwan Valley clash on June 15.

The Chinese soldiers used stones, nail-studded sticks, iron rods and clubs to carry out a brutal attack on Indian soldiers after they protested the erection of a surveillance post by China on the Indian side of the Line of Actual Control in Galwan.

The incident was the biggest confrontation between the two militaries after their 1967 clashes in Nathu La when India lost around 80 soldiers while the death toll on the Chinese side stood well over 300.