Highlights:
- Vivo exits as Title Sponsor of IPL 2020
- Patanjali is considering to bid for the Title Sponsorship of the 13th edition of IPL
- Byju’s and other major firms in India are also considering to bid
Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali is now considering to bud for the Title Sponsorship of the 13th edition of the Indian Premier League, according to the reports. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Vivo – Chinese smartphone manufacturer – who were the previous partners had abruptly ended their contract due to the major backlash faced by the board with the growing anti-China sentiment.
S K Tijarawala, a spokesperson of Patanjali has confirmed by saying, “We are considering the IPL title sponsorship for this year, since we want to give the Patanjali brand a global marketing platform,”. He added that Patanjali is considering proposing to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
However, the market experts claim that the brand lacks the star power of a Multi-National Company (MNC).
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Brand strategist, Harish Bijoor said, “Patanjali as a title sponsor for IPL will do more for Patanjali than for IPL. While the caste hierarchy among brands could play out, Patanjali owning the title sponsorship would be contextual from a nationalist perspective, since there is an enormous anti-China sentiment prevailing in the country,”.
Since Vivo dissociated itself from IPL 2020 companies including Byju’s, the Tata Group, Amazon, and Jio have entered the race.
Earlier the President of the BCCI Sourav Ganguly stated that Vovo’s exit as the title sponsor of the Indian Premier League 2020 should not be looked at as a financial crisis.
Last week the BCCI said that they have decided to announce the suspension of their partnership with Vivo as the title sponsor of the tournament.
Ganguly, while speaking during a webinar organised by Learnflix, said, “I wouldn’t call it as a financial crisis,”. He added that “”It’s just a little bit of a blip. And the only way you can do it is by being professionally strong over a period of time.
“Big things don’t come overnight. And big things don’t go away overnight. Your preparation for a long period of time gets (you) ready for losses, gets you ready for successes.
“You keep your other options open. It is like Plan A and Plan B. Sensible people do it. Sensible brands do it. Sensible corporates do it. BCCI, it’s a very a strong foundation – the game, the players, the administrators in the past have made this game so strong that BCCI is able to handle all these blips,” he said.