Bringing an end to a much-heated issue, BCCI has officially decided to suspend its IPL title sponsorship association with Chinese smartphone makers Vivo for the upcoming IPL 2020 in the UAE.

Though earlier the BCCI had decided to retain Vivo as title sponsors, the current anti-China sentiment in the country has proven to be too much for both parties to handle and they have mutually decided to suspend the association for this year only.

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 "The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and Vivo Mobile India Pvt Ltd have decided to suspend their partnership for Indian Premier League in 2020,” an official statement from the BCCI read.

This will hurt BCCI majorly given that Vivo had signed a five-year deal in 2017 for rights as title sponsors of the IPL from 2018-2022, earning BCCI a reported sum of Rs 2190 crore, approximately Rs 440 crore per annum. 

Now they are left with a difficult task of finding new sponsors for the upcoming IPL 13 in the current market situation which has been affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

(PTI inputs)