VIVO to be IPL title sponsor for next two seasons

VIVO to be IPL title sponsor for next two seasons: Chinese smartphone maker VIVO mobiles has replaced PepsiCo as the new Indian Premier League title sponsor for season 9. According to well-placed sources, the initial contract will be for 2 years and BCCI will keep the terms and conditions similar to the previous contract. The decision was ratified by the Working Committee of the board which is meeting today. Both parties were working out a mutual exit plan from quite a few days.

The beverage company, PepsiCo had raised concerns about ethics in the Indian Premier League, however, the BCCI maintained that they were troubled with their own finances. In July this year, two IPL franchises, Rajasthan Royals (RR) and Chennai Super Kings (CSK), were suspended from the tournament by a Supreme Court-appointed panel.

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Pepsi will though stay as beverage sponsor of individual teams. They had bought the title rights of the tournament in 2012 for the period 2013-2017 for Rs 396 crore, which was nearly double of what IPL’s previous sponsor, DLF, paid for the previous five-year period.

IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla had earlier said that the Pepsi pullout will have no bearing on the tournament as they were already in talks with other sponsors.

Globally, Pepsi chairman Indra Nooyi is pretty clear that the company will only associate with ethical and clean sporting properties. PepsiCo had earlier terminated its contract with ace golfer Tiger Woods during the sex scandal.