Fans slam BCCI and Indian Government for keeping Chinese brand as IPL sponsor

BCCI confirmed the 2020 edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL) on Sunday stating that the tournament will commence on September 19 with the final to be played on November 10. The board also cleared that the Sports Ministry has granted the permission to organise the T20 extravaganza in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and expressed confidence that the rest of the departments will also follow suit.

The board was earlier in favour of staging the 13th edition of the IPL in India itself and had shortlisted Mumbai as the venue. But the financial capital of the country is the worst hit city at the moment due to COVID-19 and hence, the BCCI had to drop the plan. Eventually, after considering all the options, the IPL Governing Council decided to shift the tournament to the UAE.

While it is a delighting news for the Indian fans especially who are desperate to see their heroes play on the field, some aren’t very happy that the biggest T20 League in the world is not being played at home. Moreover, the fact that the BCCI kept Vivo as IPL sponsor has also not gone down well with the fans and #BoycottIPL was trending on Twitter on Sunday soon after the tournament dates were confirmed.

Twitter is filled with people bashing the Indian government and the BCCI for not being ‘Aatmanirbhar’ and leading the way.

IPL was supposed to take place in March

The IPL 2020 was earlier scheduled to commence on March 29 but the increasing cases of Coronavirus across the world had forced the BCCI to postpone it by 15 days. But the nationwide lockdown got extended and the board suspended the tournament indefinitely. Only after the ICC postponed the T20 World Cup, the window opened for the IPL to take place.

But again there were too many roadblocks with the prevailing situation of COVID-19 in the country. For the same reason, the BCCI decided to shift the tournament to the UAE which has comparatively less cases and the quarantine rules are not too strict at the moment. Accordingly, the proposal was written to the Indian Government and everything seems to have gone as per plan as of now. However, few people aren’t happy at all with this move and have bashed the BCCI and the government.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: