On thursday (August 6,2020),The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and the Chinese mobile manufacturing giant Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd announced that they were ending their partnership for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020 tournament.
In media release The BCCI says,”The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have decided to suspend their partnership for Indian Premier League in 2020,” This came after the IPL Governing Council had on Sunday decided to retain the company as title sponsors.
An IPL governing council member told Reuters Vivo had withdrawn partly because of the weak business environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic and because of widespread anti-China sentiment in India following a border clash.
Vivo did not respond to a request for comment. Indian cricket board (BCCI) president Sourav Ganguly and IPL Chairman Brijesh Patel did not reply to calls and messages from Reuters.
There is growing pressure on Chinese companies in India following a border clash in June when 20 Indian soldiers were killed.
India has banned Chinese firm ByteDance’s TikTok and 58 other Chinese apps, and made approval processes more stringent for Chinese companies wanting to invest in the country.
The IPL Governing Council had in June said it would review its sponsorship deals in light of the border skirmish.
Yet its decision to retain Vivo, taken over the weekend, sparked protests by a Hindu nationalist group close to India’s ruling party which threatened to call for an IPL boycott unless the decision was reconsidered.
