BCCI Stands By Players

The Indian cricket board today rejected the 'finaloffer' of the International Cricket Council on the contracts issue and calledfor scrutiny of the World Cup sponsorship agreements while emphasising that theboard would firmly back the players.

The special general meeting of the board, whichdeliberated on the contentious issue for nearly four hours here, also decided toselect the final squad of 15 players for the World Cup by the December 31deadline while empowering president Jagmohan Dalmiya to take any further actionin the matter.

"The board felt it was necessary to ascertainwhether the rights given to the World Cup sponsors under the sponsorshipagreements were in consonance with the decisions of the ICC executiveboard", Dalmiya told reporters after the meeting.

"If excessive rights were granted to the sponsorsthen BCCI, as a stakeholder, should not be called upon to suffer financiallosses," he said.

When reminded of the criticism of this stand of theBCCI by ICC president Malcolm Gray a couple of days ago, Dalmiya said,"These issues should not be brushed aside on the pretext of being'outdated' and 'irrelevant'. Rather it should face scrutiny".

The board members also issued a threat to the Indiansponsors of the World Cup asking them to "grant dispensations" toIndian cricketers so that they can participate in the Cup and if, "they didnot look after the larger interest of the country and its cricket then BCCIshould review its commercial relations with them in future".

The ICC president had made the 'final offer' last weekafter making certain concessions in the players' terms and had subsequentlyasked the Indian board to fulfil its contractual obligattion instead of goinginto 'outdated' and 'irrelevant' issues which had already been addressed.

Dalmiya said that the meeting felt that the restrictiveclauses in the terms were unjustified and that the board should stand by theplayers.

"The members felt that inducement to breakexisting contracts was unlawful and that the board should not be a party toinducing players to break their existing contracts", Dalmiya said.

Asked how the board would ensure that all the 15selected players would sign the World Cup contract before January 14 if the ICCrefuses to make more concessions, the board president simply said, "justwait and watch".

He said "There is a gap of two weeks between theselection of players and deadline for signing and anything can happen duringthose days".

He also hinted that the board was ready to take legalrecourse as, "we have already taken legal opinion on the issue and we knowwe are on firm ground".

Dalmiya, who has been negotiating with the ICC bossesfor more than two months, was also empowered by today's general meeting to takeany action that would be necessitated in the matter.

Dalmiya said that the problem faced by the Indianplayers was, unique in nature as, "Our boys get millions of dollars undertheir existing contracts and it should be accordingly dealt with."

To a query on what sort of 'dispensations' wereexpected from the Indian sponsors of the World Cup, Dalmiya said "Themembers hoped that these sponsors and partners of the Global Cricket Corporation(GCC) would rise to the occasion foregoing pecuniary considerations in thelarger interests of the country and its cricket.

"This gesture would go a long way in continuingthe commercial dealings between BCCI and the sponsors", he said whilerecalling the gesture of Sahara India which decided to continue with itssponsorship of the Indian team despite objections from the ICC for use of itslogo by the Indian team in the Champions Trophy.

Incidentally three out of the four official sponsors ofthe World Cup are Indian companies and some of them are also Indian partners ofthe Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), the marketing company of the World Cup.

Dalmiya, who is also the member of an ICC panel toresolve the contract issue before the World Cup, said that the next round oftele-conference with the ICC top offocials is scheduled for Friday and then thematter would be discussed again.

The ICC had earlier warned the BCCI that its failure toaccept the final offer of concession in the players term and ensureparticipation of its best team to the World Cup beginning in South Africa onFebruary 8 would evoke huge damage claim.

Dalmiya, however, expressed hope that the matter wouldbe amicably settled saying " the ICC is our parent body and it is ourtopmost priority that everybody participates in the World Cup".

As per the final offer of the world body, the Indianplayers had to accept restrictions on personal endorsement of products in directconflict with those of official sponsors for a period of 30 days before and fivedays after the World Cup, apart from the time when the tournament was on.

The official sponsors would also have the right to usethe images of the players for three months after the World Cup.

The Indian board had already said that it would acceptrestrictions on personal endorsement only during the World Cup while it insiststhat players with pre-existing conflicting contracts should not be called forimaging and for others it should be only for two months after the World Cup.

Incidentally, a similar showdown between the BCCI andthe ICC had taken place just before the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka inSeptember prompting the ICC to set up a six-member panel to resolve the issueahead of the World Cup.

The deadlock over the issue arose when the Indian players refused to sign thePlayers' Terms which barred their personal endorsements during the 30 days oneither side of the tournament if it clashed with the official sponsors of theChampions Trophy.

Initially, the ICC offered to forego the first 30 days clause, but insistedon this bar during the tournament and 30 days after to which players onlyaccepted the first one.

Subsequently the BCCI requested the ICC to directly speak to the players andin which the players agreed to accept the ban for 17 days after the tournament.

But then the ICC raised the possibility of sponsors claiming damages from itbecause of the change in the Players' Terms which might have to be borne by theBCCI which demanded a letter of assurance from ICC that it should not be calledupon to pay any damages because of changes in the terms.

After the ICC refused to give the letter of assurance, the Indian boardcalled upon the players to sign the original terms to make themselves eligiblefor selection for the Champions Trophy.

In the wake of this prolonged tussle, efforts were on torevive a 13-year old representative body of the players to deal with suchsituations in future. A move was initiated to revive the Association of IndianCricketers (AIC), formed in 1989, to address the plethora of issues facing thegame and the players.

Following this, the Indian Cricket Players' Association (ICPA) was formed withformer Indian skipper Mansur Ali Khan Pataudi as its head. Skipper Saurav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Anil Kumbleand former all-rounder turned TV commentator Ravi Sashtri were the foundingmembers with former Test opener Arun Lal, the moving spirit behind the new body, the secretary.

PTI