The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday decided to retain all the sponsors of the Indian Premier League (IPL) including the Chinese brands. IPL has decided not to sever ties their major sponsor Vivo, a Chinese mobile handset maker.
The decision has drawn a strong criticism from the Confederation of All India Traders(CAIT) which is spearhaeading a national movement for boycott of Chinese products.In view of this decision,CAIT has a communication to Union Home Minister Amit Shah and External Affairs Minister S Jayashankar urging not to give any approval to BCCI for holding the IPL event in Dubai.The CAIT has said that such a step of BCCI will be contradictory to the policy of the government to impose curbs on spreading of COVID-19 in the country and has termed the BCCI decision to hold IPL in Dubai as an escape route to dodge the efforts of the government to arrest COVID cases in the country.CAIT president B C Bhartia and general secretary Praveen Khandelwal said that at a time when China aggression on Indian borders in last month gave much rise to the sentiments of people of India against China.
The decision of the BCCI runs contrary to broad policy of the government.Bhartia and Khandelwal said that in the past the union government has taken various commendable steps to reduce dependence of India on China as also to protect security and sovereignty of the country which includes ban on 59 Chinese Apps,rejecting partnership of Chinese companies in Railway and Highway projects.Under such scenario the decision of the BCCI smacks of utter disregard for the safety of the people,players,uests,members,staff,volunteers,partners and local residents.