Vivo will not sponsor IPL. Now, when I read this header, I really felt quite pleased because our board has gone on and did the correct thing of banning a Chinese company from sponsoring an Indian event. I felt that the board which is the prime reason for all the ills the game faces in the country have for once was not worried about money and cared about the prevailing mood in the country and banned Vivo from sponsoring IPL. Alas, I was wrong. Within the next 10 minutes, I was completely let down by the board. Let me try to explain
Yes, Vivo will not sponsor IPL but that is only for 2020. In other words, if the scenario between India and China improves or even if there is a slight change in the mood of the people of the country, the board will not for a moment hesitate to bring back Vivo as the title sponsor.
Vivo’s contract with the BCCI
Vivo’s title sponsor contract is between 2018 & 2022. It is over a 5 years period. Apart from 2020, they still have two more years remaining. By leaving the door open for Vivo, the BCCI will ensure that Vivo is back for their remaining period of their contract if there is even a slight improvement in the bi-lateral relations between the two countries.
The prevailing mood in the country
If not the whole country, a majority of the countrymen and women are very much angry towards the Chinese aggression. The anger has only increase after 20 of our soldiers were killed by the Chinese. It was in a gruesome manner that is not the hallmark of a nation’s army. The Chinese army behaved like a group of thugs. It is a different story that the Chinese lost more men than us but certainly the Indians are in no mood to forgive and forget the Chinese because of the uncalled for violence and killing.
Various measures to stop importing Chinese products
The government is trying their best to punish the Chinese through various methods. More than 60 Chinese apps are already banned. A lot of Chinese exports to the country stands banned. A lot are waiting at various harbours throughout the country for inspection. Quite a few vendors have taken a huge risk and have banned imports from China. They are prepared to accept the loss because they want to standby our soldiers and send a message to China. Other vendors are taking steps to stop importing crackers for Deepavali, the traditional festival most revered by the Hindus throughout the world. Indian vendors used to import rakhi’s, the traditional festival that shows a sister’s affection towards her brother, worth 4000 crores from China. This year that was stopped. If reports are to be believed, the Chinese companies have been affected severely and have incurred enormous amount of loss.
At a time when most of the country is standing united against China, in one way or the other, the BCCI, instead of banning a Chinese company from sponsoring any event, have banned, probably I should not use the word banned, postponed Vivo’s sponsorship by just ONE year. This is so petty of the BCCI and shows how cheap the board and its members are.
Request to the government
I wish the government will not give the board permission to go ahead with the tournament even in the UAE because of the board’s reluctance to drop Vivo for the remaining period. It is perhaps time that the government gets strict with the board. The BCCI is the most self-centred board that is being run by a group of self-profiting individuals.
Ganguly disappoints, once again
Ganguly is again and again proving that he is a useless president. Also, he keeps proving that he is not different from the previous presidents. He is after money and only money and he does not seem to care about the game, the players and the country.
Firstly, to schedule IPL till the 10th of November itself is height of stupidity. India have an important tour coming up in December for which the players require adequate preparation. In this Corona induced social distancing and various other precautions that touring teams are expected to undertake, the players will be in quarantine for 14 days in Australia which means by the time the first test starts on December 3rd, the players will be ZERO prepared and will promptly go onto lose the first and second tests. I can only hope that with insane administrators managing the game, we are not annihilated in Australia.
Secondly, by refusing to ban Vivo from sponsoring IPL forever, he has let down the country completely. This is nothing short of blasphemy.
I genuinely wish that a person who cares about the performance of the team, who cares about the well-being of all the players in the country, a patriot, will one day, run the BCCI. Alas, this probably will never ever happen.
Shouldn’t the BCCI be prevented from having a Chinese company as their sponsor? Comment below.