CHENNAI: The IPL Governing Council will have a meeting on Saturday to finalise details of staging the tournament in UAE from September 19. Representatives of the eight franchises are expected to attend the meeting, with members of the Governing Council led by chairman Brijesh Patel. Sponsorship review may also be discussed.
This will be an important meeting for the franchises because they have not heard anything from BCCI other than an announcement that the IPL will be held in UAE from September 19 to November 8. They need covering letters from BCCI for visa purposes. Players and support staff from certain other countries have to obtain travel clearance from their governments, for which also covering letters from BCCI are needed. The franchises want to train in UAE from the second half of August.
This will be the first meeting of the IPL Governing Council in some time. On June 19, the IPL’s official handle @IPL had tweeted, “Taking note of the border skirmish that resulted in the martyrdom of our brave jawans, the IPL Governing Council has convened a meeting next week to review IPL’s various sponsorship deals.”
Chinese smartphone maker Vivo being the IPL’s title sponsor, this was tweeted days after a number of Indian soldiers lost their lives in the Indo-China border. Asked if the meeting will discuss sponsorship review, Patel didn’t say no. “Everything about IPL will be discussed,” he said. However, with the start of IPL about six weeks away, changing the sponsor will be difficult. Franchises have not been told anything about it.
Despite over a month passing since that tweet, the Governing Council neither held a meeting nor announced whether to continue with Vivo’s agreement or terminate it. In a five-year deal which started in 2018, Vivo is committed to `440 crore to BCCI per year. If it has to terminate the contract before 2022, the BCCI may have to pay a hefty compensation.