Vivo has pulled out as IPL's title sponsor, and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) will replace it with Tata. This decision was taken at the Governing Council meeting of the IPL on Tuesday (January 11).
Following the Governing Council meeting, IPL chairman Brijesh Patel confirmed about the Tata Group coming on board to Cricbuzz. "Vivo has exited and the Tatas will be title sponsors."
Patel also disclosed that Governing Council has approved the Letter of Intent to be issued to CVC Capital, whose acquisition of the Ahmedabad franchise has been under a cloud for over a couple months.
"The Governing Council has approved the CVC acquisition of the Ahmedabad team and we will issue the LoI today (January 11)," he further said. Vivo has a couple of years left in its sponsorship deal with the league and during this period, Tata will remain the main sponsor. The league will now be called Tata IPL.
Vivo had bagged the title rights at a cost of INR 440 crore a year in 2018. However, the Chinese smartphone makers had paused the deal for a year in 2020 in the backdrop of Indo-China diplomatic standoff when the rights were transferred to Dream 11. The original five-year deal was up to 2022 season and it got extended till 2023 because of the one-year break. Following the Governing Council's decision, the Tata Group will step in and remain the title sponsor for the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
BCCI secretary Jay Shah welcomed the Tata Group on board. "This is indeed a momentous occasion for the BCCI IPL as the Tata Group is the epitome of global Indian enterprise with an over 100 year old legacy and operations in more than 100 countries across six continents.
Incidentally, the Governing Council, primarily called to discuss the LoI to the CVC Capital, has also discussed the dates of the mega auction, and the IPL chairman confirmed to this website that it will be in Bangalore on February 12 and 13. However, the BCCI has not decided on how much time to be given to the two new teams for signing the players.
They were initially expected to be given at least a couple of weeks. However, information going around in the IPL is that they may not exactly need two weeks to finalise their enrolments as they have already been working on their recruitment and could do well with a fewer days.