Chinese technology company VIVO has pulled out as IPL’s title sponsors. The decision was taken in a Governing Council Meeting of the IPL on Tuesday.
The Governing Council of the IPL has approved the Chinese mobile manufacturing company’s request and has transferred the rights to TATA Group which is one of the biggest company in the country.
The league will now be called as ‘TATA IPL’.
“There was a request from Vivo to exit the IPL sponsorship deal and the GC has approved it,” an BCCI official told Cricbuzz.
“The BCCI will continue to earn the same fee for the title rights,” the official concluded.
Why VIVO pulled themselves out ?
In 2018, the company bagged the rights for INR 440 crore per annum for five years. However, the deal was suspended in 2020 when a political conflict between India and China took place. The rights were transferred to a company named Dream11. Dream11 won the rights for INR 222 crores in 2020.
The Governing Council met today to discuss and finalize the auction modalities, dates, venue & operational plan for the IPL Auction.
“Our entire focus now is on to conduct successful IPL Auction. We will discuss the way forward in GC Meeting and finalize everything”, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel said.
The preparations for the 2022 edition of IPL have been going on for a long time now. The eight original franchises have already submitted their retention list on November 30, 2022. The two new franchises-Lucknow and Ahmedabad are scheduled to submit a list which would contain a maximum of three players by January 31, 2022.
The mega auctions are scheduled to take place on February 12 and 13.