Patanjali Enters The Race For IPL’s Title Sponsorship

Patanjali, one of India’s largest herbal and consumer product companies, is now ready to bid for IPL’s title sponsorship. Due to the border dispute between India and China, the Chinese brand VIVO has stepped down from sponsoring the Indian Premier League this year.

VIVO which has a five-year contract with the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) was ready to spend 440 Crores for this year’s tournament. Due to negative responses from the audience, the company pulled back. This has put BCCI in a tough spot and currently, they are in the hunt for a potential sponsor who could match VIVO.

Many top Indian companies like Jio, TATA Group, Amazon, and Byju’s are ready to bid for the spot of the sponsor. Pathanjali’s spokesperson said, “We are considering the IPL title sponsorship for this year since we want to give the Patanjali brand a global marketing platform.”

“Patanjali as a title sponsor for IPL will do more for Patanjali than for IPL. While the caste hierarchy among brands could play out, Patanjali owning the title sponsorship would be contextual from a nationalist perspective, since there is an enormous anti-China sentiment prevailing in the country,” said brand strategist Harish Bijoor.

Recently Patanjali launched a corona kit saying that it would cure COVID but the health ministry restricted them from selling such misleading products and said they could sell it as an immunity booster but not as a cure.

With IPL matches scheduled in September, BCCI must find a title sponsor in this short span as they will be pushed to a position to give up 50% of their shares if they fail to do so.