BCCI treasurer Arun Dhumal on Friday (June 18) said the board is open to reviewing its sponsorship policy for the next cycle, but currently there are no plans to end the association with Vivo as IPL title sponsor. Dhumal reasoned that the money that comes from the sponsorship deal is helping India's cause, not China's.
There is an anti-Chinese movement that has triggered across the country since the border clash at Galwan valley earlier this week. In a first such clash in four decades between the two countries, 20 India soldiers got martyred. Since then, calls have been made to boycott all Chinese products in the nation.
Dhumal, however, said having a sponsor from any other country helps India's economy. The BCCI gets Rs 440 crore annually from Vivo in a five-year deal that ends in 2022, a substantial portion of which goes to the Indian government in the form of taxes.
"When you talk emotionally, you tend to leave the rationale behind. We have to understand the difference between supporting a Chinese company for a Chinese cause or taking help from Chinese company to support India's cause," Dhumal told PTI.
"When we are allowing Chinese companies to sell their products in India, whatever money they are taking from Indian consumer, they are paying part of it to the BCCI (as brand promotion) and the board is paying 42 per cent tax on that money to the Indian government. So, that is supporting India's cause and not China's," he added.
Another Chinese mobile phone brand, Oppo, was sponsoring the Indian cricket team until September last year. It was replaced by the Bangalore-based educational technology, Byju's.
Dhumal said there shall definitely be less dependency on the Chinese products, but as long as their companies are allowed to business in India, there is no harm in any of them sponsoring cricket.
"If they are not supporting the IPL, they are likely to take that money back to China. If that money is retained here, we should be happy about it. We are supporting our government with that money (by paying taxes on it)."
"If I am giving a contract to a Chinese company to build a cricket stadium, then I am helping the Chinese economy. GCA built the world's largest cricket stadium at Motera and that contract was given to an Indian company (L&T)."
"Cricketing infrastructure worth thousands of crores was created across country and none of the contract(s) was awarded to a Chinese company."
With Indian cricket being a very attractive property, the BCCI has generally been spoilt for choices when it comes to sponsors. But Dhumal thinks it's still important that such decisions are based on rationality and not emotion.
"If that Chinese money is coming to support Indian cricket, we should be okay with it. I am all for banning Chinese products as an individual, we are there to support our government but by getting sponsorship from Chinese company, we are helping India's cause," he said.
"We can get sponsorship money from non-Chinese companies also including Indian firms. We can support our players anyway but the idea is when they are allowed to sell their products here, it is better that part of the money comes back to the Indian economy."
"The BCCI is not giving money to the Chinese, it is attracting on the contrary. We should make decisions based on rationale rather than emotion," Dhumal concluded.
(Inputs from PTI)
