Team India’s New Jersey Lands In Big Trouble
May 6, 2017 at 1:01 PM
Just a couple of days after new Team India sponsors OPPO unveiled the official new jersey of the cricket team, the jersey has landed in trouble with an RSS affiliate demanding the government to intervene and scrap the sponsorship deal. The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch (SJM), which has launched a campaign to push for indigenous production and consumption of goods, has written to the sports ministry for annulment of BCCI’s contract with the Chinese mobile production firm.
“Money cannot be more important than national pride and welfare of our own citizens and industry and therefore we urge you to interfere in the matter and use your good office to cancel the agreement entered into between Oppo and BCCI,” the SJM said in a letter to Sports Minister Vijay Goel.
The group feels that the new deal would only ‘misguide’ the youth to buy Chinese products apart from hampering their campaign which encourages the citizens to buy Indian products.
“This would not only misguide our youth in blindly going for buying Chinese brands but would also place us in a very awkward position and our campaign is likely to get badly affected by this,” SJM’s national co-convener Ashwani Mahajan said in the letter.
“Chinese goods have invaded Indian markets which is not only killing our domestic production but also has direct negative impact on employment generation efforts made by the government,” Mahajan added.
Oppo and the BCCI, in March, had signed a five-year team sponsorship deal worth Rs 1,079 crore. The new sponsors will be paying an amount of Rs 1.56 crore for every game in an ICC tournament and Rs 4.61 crore per bilateral game involving the Indian team.