|| India Correspondent ||

The decision by the IPL Governing Council to retain their Chinese sponsors Vivo for the tournament caused a huge backlash because of recent China-India incidents at the border. After the incident, the central government had also banned a lot of Chinese apps as well.

According to a report in the Times of India, Vivo India is planning to back out of the 13th edition of IPL which is scheduled to take place in the UAE and this is what an IPL franchise communicated to others on Monday evening.

Notably, Vivo India got the IPL title sponsorship rights for five years in 2017 for a whopping Rs 2199 crore with a commitment to pay approximately Rs 440 crores every season of the league. However, the Vivo had replaced PepsiCo to enter the title sponsorship as well.

On the other hand, the BCCI is not happy about the communication that took place on Monday, but also shared that it took the general sentiment of the fans in utter seriousness and is in the middle of a series of meetings with the central government to convey/receive the decision on Vivo's presence.

As of now the BCCI’s immediate focus is on finding a replacement in time for 2020 edition of IPL and a decision is likely to be made soon whereas the franchises are already worried about compensation.

The Times of India report quoted sources saying, "Vivo is going to have to exit the league this year and that looks certain now. How that happens is going to depend on how BCCI and Vivo negotiate the matter. The company (Vivo) has had its own share of issues and the BCCI has optics to deal with, given the political climate. They have to come to some understanding here because legal options can't be considered in this case".

However, it is likely to be tough to find a suitable replacement as the title sponsors at such short notice, especially amid the crunch situation of COVID-19 across the globe. However, a deal between Vivo India and IPL is likely to happen as well.