Secretary of Cricket Association of Bihar (CAB) Aditya Verma has opined that signing of the ‘Chinese company’ Dream11 as IPL 2020’s title sponsorship has shattered Indian Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi dream of Atma Nirbhar Bharat. However, Dream 11 is an Indian based gaming application but a China-based App development organisation called Tencent Games has hugely invested in the company.
On Tuesday (18th August), IPL chairman Brijesh Patel had informed that the Dream11 has won the bid of IPL title sponsorship for INR 222 crore. Some of India’s biggest companies had bid for the title sponsorship including Tata Sons (180 crores), Jio Communications and Patanjali.
Also, India’s successful e-learning apps Unacademy (210 crores) and Byju’s (125 crores) had bid but Dream 11 had outbid all of them to win this year’s sponsorship.
But Verma seems to not be happy with Dream 11 winning the bid. However, he wishes that the Indian Premier League in the UAE gets successfully organised.
“As a well-wisher of Indian sports, I wish and pray that IPL 13 is held successfully in the UAE,” Verma told IANS. “However, with Dream11 becoming the title sponsor of IPL, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream of ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’ will be a bit shattered as Dream11 is a Chinese company. It has also come to fore that the company has a huge investment in one of the IPL franchises,” he added.
Vivo suspended IPL 2020 sponsorship, Dream11 bags contract:
Chinese mobile company Vivo had pulled out from this year’s IPL title sponsorship after tensions flared up between India and China in the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The clash between the countries had killed over 20 Indian soldiers which had led #BoycottChina moment India.
Also with PM Modi indirectly supporting the move while starting the Atma Nirbhar Bharat campaign to promote Indian goods, the fans had demanded to BCCI for ending the sponsorships deal with a Chinese company. Thus, Vivo had suspended this year’s deal.
Vivo India had bagged the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years in 2017 for Rs 2199 crore, committing to pay the league approximately Rs 440 crore every season.
The IPL 2020 edition is slated from 19th September to 10th November.