In a huge blow to the Indian Premier League (IPL), Chinese mobile phone company Vivo paused its association with the BCCI for the 13th edition of the cash-rich league.

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The India-China border clash in June trigged this decision and the move is expected to hurt BCCI given that Vivo had signed a five-year deal in 2017 for rights as title sponsors of the IPL from 2018-2022, earning the Indian board a reported sum of Rs 440 crore annually.

However, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly doesn’t want to call this phase a crisis.

“I would not call it a financial crisis. It’s a little bit of a blip and the only way you can do (overcome) that is by being professionally strong over a period of time. Big things don’t come overnight, big things don’t go away overnight. Preparation for a long period of time gets you ready for losses, and success,” Ganguly said in a webinar organised by S. Chand on Saturday (August 8).

The BCCI is yet to make an official call on the new sponsor.

“BCCI is a strong foundation. The game, the administrators in the past have made it so strong that the BCCI is able to handle all these blips,” he added.

Ganguly also acknowledged that the resumption of cricket in England has given confidence to other stakeholders about restarting the sport.

“If you look at England, there is county cricket going on everywhere. There’s football happening; they just finished the Premier League. That gives you confidence that if they can go around the country and get cricket done, if we have the right medical staff and the teams are spread out in various venues and we do it clinically and professionally, I am sure we can get past this. There is no guarantee to anything. You have to believe in yourself,” the BCCI boss remarked.

(Inputs from Sportstar)