BCCI President Sourav Ganguly on IPL-Vivo Suspension: ‘It’s just a little bit of a blip’

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly has described the suspension of the IPL title sponsorship deal with Chinese mobile phone company Vivo as just a “blip”, dismissing talk that it might lead to a “financial crisis”.

The BCCI and Vivo on Thursday decided to suspend their partnership for IPL 2020, scheduled to take place from September 19 in the UAE. The deal came in the wake of the Sino-India border stand-off. And a demand to boycott Chinese products by the Indian government.

BCCI President Sourav Ganguly:

During a webinar organised by educational book publishers S Chandd Group, Ganguly said, “I wouldn’t call it as a financial crisis. It’s just a little bit of a blip.”

The former India captain assured that the BCCI have a ‘Plan B’ and said, “BCCI, it’s a very a 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. You keep your other options open. It is like Plan A and Plan B. Sensible people do it. Also, Sensible brands do it. Sensible corporates do it.”

“And the only way you can do it is by being professionally strong over a period of time. Big things don’t come overnight. And big things don’t go away overnight. Your preparation for a long period of time gets (you) ready for losses, gets you ready for successes.”

Title Sponsors:

The title sponsorship is a significant part of the IPL’s commercial revenue, half of which is shared equally by the eight franchises. Vivo won the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years from 2018 to 2022 for a reported sum of Rs 2190 crore, approximately Rs 440 crore per annum.

Reacting to the ICC’s decision to stay India’s hosting rights of 2021 World Cup, Ganguly 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.”

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