IPL governing council to meet next week to discuss sponsorship deals amid India-China face-off at Galwan Valley

The governing council of the Indian Premier League (IPL) will be reviewing several sponsorship deals next week when they have a meeting. The IPL will mainly review the title sponsorship deal with Vivo which is worth INR 440 crore. The deal will expire in 2022. A tweet from their official Twitter handle of the IPL confirmed this news.

According to the tweet, the governing council of the league have taken note of the political tensions which have recently escalated between India and China. A few days back, as many as 20 Indian soldiers were killed in a border stand-off with the Chinese Army.

“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 handle tweeted late on Friday night.

What did BCCI treasurer say earlier?

The BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal on Thursday revealed that the board is planning to review to the policy for the sponsorships for the upcoming cycle. However, he also mentioned that the board has no plans to end its current partnership with Vivo. The reason cited by Dhumal was the fact that the money coming from the Chinese company is benefiting India rather than the other way round.

The armies of India and China had a serious clash on the border at the Galwan valley this week. Due to this, anti-China sentiments are running quite high in India. There have been calls for boycotting Chinese products by the Indian public. “When you talk emotionally, you tend to leave the rationale behind. We have to understand the difference between supporting a Chinese company for a Chinese cause or taking help from a Chinese company to support India’s cause,” Dhumal had said.

“When we are allowing Chinese companies to sell their products in India, whatever money they are taking from Indian consumer, they are paying part of it to the BCCI (as brand promotion) and the board is paying 42 per cent tax on that money to the Indian government. So, that is supporting India’s cause and not China’s,” he argued.

Earlier, another Chinese mobile brand, Oppo was the sponsors of the Indian team. It was only last year, that Bengaluru-based educational start-up Byju replaced the Chinese mobile manufacturer.