The big players in the market who sponsored the Indian Cricket League from 2012 have ultimately backed off from its sponsorship due to the scandal hit IPL. PepsiCo has pulled out of an Rs 4bn ($62m) sponsorship deal with the Indian Premier League cricket tournament.
Accordingly, the US based beverage giant PepsiCo had signed a five year contract deal with the sponsorship arrangement, but on Sunday it has finally ended the association with three years of serving. Before PepsiCo it was DLF, India’s biggest listed property developer, paid for the rights from 2008-12.
Cricket in India is a big news and any hassle in the same shakes the entire nation because of the pieces of emotions attached with this game. It overpowers other games and Indian Premier League especially conglomerates with the sizzling Bollywood stars and bling of cricketers altogether making the game of cricket more fanciful yet extravagant.
Reports said PepsiCo’s decision was based on issues that have brought the game into “disrepute”.
The board and the company said in a joint statement “”BCCI and PepsiCo have had a longstanding cordial relationship and have been in discussions to work out a solution which addresses PepsiCo’s concerns. Both parties will share it when ready.” However, the report did not have any specific clues of this withdrawal from the association.
More than two dozen people, including players, officials and bookmakers, were arrested by Indian police who were altering charged for their crime. It disputed the concerns of the big investors into the game. Three players — S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandela and Ankit Cahvan — were charged with spot-fixing, the term given to incidents in a match that may not affect the final result but can easily attract illegal bets.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India, the sport’s governing body and the IPL’s owners, said Chinese phone maker Vivo Electronics would become the IPL’s title sponsor for the two remaining seasons of Pepsi’s contract. In statement it was said that the Chinese phone maker will provide funds in the next 10 days with the assured payment guarantee.
“Losing a global company like Pepsi is obviously a blow,” said Ayaz Memon, a Mumbai-base cricket writer and commentator. “They seem to have become fed up with these governance problems, and decided it wasn’t worth the reputation problems.”
