Indian Premier League, also known as IPL is a professional 20-20 cricket league which is organised by India every year with eight different teams representing eight cities and states of India. The Cricket League is one of the most entertaining cricket formats where players from different international teams are auctioned and bought by IPL team owners as a part of their respective teams. The Indian Premier League is the brainchild of the BCCI – Board of Control for Cricket in India in 2007.
Having said that, the main highlight of the 14th Indian Premier League in 2021 is that Chinese smartphone maker- Vivo has returned to the game as the league’s Title Sponsor. Vivo has replaced Dream 11 as the Title Sponsor for IPL 2021.
Brijesh Patel, Chairman of the Indian Premier League had announced on the day of the auction on Thursday that Vivo is back as IPL’s Title Sponsor after being pulled out last minute in IPL 2020 because of the political tensions between India and China after the Galwan Valley incident.
Anyhow, Dream 11 was the next option for the BCCI to offer Title Sponsorship to with a fresh process. According to sources, it has been confirmed that Dream11 reserved the rights for Rs 222 crore at that time which loosely translates to USD 29.7 million.
Vivo on the other hand had bought the Title Sponsorship for the Indian Premier League from 2017 to 2022 for USD 341 million which was reportedly an extension to the smartphone maker’s previous deal after 2015.
As mentioned in a report by ESPN, the BCCI pulled down Vivo from this contract and stripped it off its Title Sponsorship in 2020 with a one-line statement that mentioned about Vivo’s suspension from the Indian Premier League 2020.
You must wonder about the importance of Title Sponsorship during the Indian Premier League matches. Well, Title Sponsorship becomes a very significant part of the IPL’s revenue-sharing agreement with other franchises. As mentioned in a report by ESPN, the Title Sponsorship money goes straight to the eight franchises. As per the records, each franchise earns more or less over Rs. 20 crore per year from Title Sponsorships.
Anyhow, it was interesting to see newer faces in the IPL auction on Thursday with the biggest highlight being the enrolment and debut of Arjun Tendulkar- Son of Sachin Tendulkar. Will he be able to take his father’s place in the Indian Cricket Team? Stay tuned to watch Vivo IPL 2021!