I wouldn't call it a financial crisis: Sourav Ganguly on partnership suspension with Vivo Mobiles

While the pursuit for a new title sponsor for the Indian Premier League is underway, BCCI President Sourav Ganguly indicated that the Board is strong enough to deal with these “blips.”

During a webinar organised by Learnflix, an education app in India, Sourav Ganguly said that the BCCI is not in a “financial crisis” following the partnership suspension with Vivo Mobiles."I wouldn't call it as a financial crisis. It's just a little bit of a blip. And the only way you can do it is by being professionally strong over a period of time. Big things don't come overnight. And big things don't go away overnight. Your preparation for a long period of time gets (you) ready for losses, gets you ready for successes.”

In 2015, Vivo had replaced Pepsico as the title sponsor for the duration of the two-year deal entered into by the previous sponsor. In 2017, Vivo officially bought the title sponsorship rights in an unprecedented leap to a huge lucrative INR deal of 2,199 crores in a five-year deal that gave BCCI INR 439 crores a year.

"You keep your other options open. It is like Plan A and Plan B. Sensible people do it. Sensible brands do it. Sensible corporates do it. BCCI, it's a very a 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 added.

The BCCI President also spoke about the big decision that ICC made on Friday regarding the hosts of upcoming two T20 World Cups in 2021 and 2022 respectively. "India was designated (to host) the 2021 and 2023 World Cups so there is not a big change in that. Yes, the COVID situation had kept everybody alarmed, but that's the way it is."