November 16 Saturday 2002
ICC delegation to meet Indian sponsors

NEW DELHI: The International Cricket Council (ICC) is sending a four-man committee, headed by Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Speed, to New Delhi on Tuesday to hold meetings with various sponsors related to the World Cup to be played in South Africa from February next year.

Speed will meet representatives of various firms involved with sponsorships to thrash out a solution to problem that had threatened to derail the ICC Knock-out tournament in Sri Lanka in September this year.

While most of the issues relating to tournament sponsors' clash of interests with player and team sponsors had been skirted or deferred, none of the issues were ever really comprehensively sorted out, ensuring that the factor of clash of interest stays alive in the World Cup as well.

It may be recalled that things had turned really nasty just prior to the tournament as the ICC had suddenly asked members of Indian team to sign contracts that were against their contractual interests.

The players had refused to sign the papers, creating a situation where Board of Control for Cricket in India had to put forward a list of 25 reserve players in the event that the first team did not play the tournament.

Sahara India, who were team sponsors for India, withdrew from the deal temporarily when ICC refused to accept their alternate logo for the team uniforms. The clash between the players on one side and ICC and BCCI on the other also spurred creation of the recently-formed Indian Cricket Players' Association.