IPL Chinese Sponsor Deal Suspension 'Not Financial Crisis': Ganguly

India's cricket chief Sourav Ganguly says that the decision of the Indian Premier League to terminate a lucrative deal with its key sponsor, the Chinese phone manufacturer Vivo, after a deadly border dispute between the two nations is "just a blip."

Last week, the IPL terminated the deal with Vivo, which concluded a five-year contract worth more than $330 million in 2017 to sponsor the richest cricket competition in the world.

"I wouldn't call it a financial crisis. It is just a little bit of a blip," said Ganguly, the head of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), reports AFP.

"BCCI, it's a very strong foundation -- the game, the players, the administrators in the past have made this game so strong that BCCI is able to handle all these blips," he said at an online conference on Saturday, the Press Trust of India reported.

"You keep your other options open. It is like Plan A and Plan B."

The 2020 IPL season is due to commence next month in the United Arab Emirates.

Vivo said that the move was mutually agreed.

Calls for a boycott of Chinese companies and products grew in India after a clash on 15 June in which 20 Indian soldiers died.

The Indian government has also blocked thousands of Chinese mobile apps — including the famous TikTok video streaming platform — and has also taken other steps to curb trade with China.

The IPL and BCCI have links with companies such as Paytm, Swiggy, Dream11 and Byju, all of which have Chinese investments.

According to sources, the BCCI was in negotiations with Indian firms over sponsorship agreements, but was projected to raise less than the $60 million it should have earned from Vivo.

One of the eight IPL teams were estimated to lose about $4 million in missed funding, the team official told AFP on anonymity Thursday.

The Star-Studded IPL Twenty20 League is a huge revenue earner for the BCCI and is expected to raise more than $11 billion for the Indian economy.

The competition usually begins in March but has been delayed twice this year owing to the coronavirus pandemic.