Traders’ body, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT), in a stronglyworded letter to Sports Minister Kiren Rijiju, has sought the sports ministry’s immediate intervention for cancellation of Dream11 as the official title sponsor for IPL 2020 citing the fantasy sports platform’s stake in Chinese firm Tencent Global.
In a letter to Rijiju, CAIT said, “The issue of granting title sponsorship of IPL to Dream11, which has a substantial stake in Chinese company Tencent Global, is an attempt to thwart the ‘Vocal for Local’ and ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat’ the clarion call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and also contradict various steps aggressively taken by the government to restrict the participation of Chinese companies in various infrastructure projects including that of Railways and Highways.”
The Traders’ body CAIT further alleged that the BCCI has ‘hoodwinked the people of India’ and its decision to suspend VIVO’s deal for title sponsorship of IPL 2020 ‘was a mere eyewash’. Earlier the body also wrote to BCCI president Sourav Ganguly, Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) said, “We are deeply pained to note that now Dream 11 has been chosen as a sponsor of IPL 2020 which has Chinese company Tencent Global as one of the major stakeholders”.
The BCCI and Chinese mobile manufacturer VIVO decided to suspend the IPL title sponsorship rights for 2020 following a public backlash against Chinese companies amid the India-China border stand-off. Later Dream11 was chosen as IPL 2020’s title sponsor for a deal worth Rs 222 crores, beating competitors such as Unacademy and Byju’s. Interestingly, BCCI in a press release stressed the fact that Dream11 is an Indian company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra.