Players must choose between cash or country

The International Cricket Council has warned players threatening to boycott the ICC Champions Trophy that they may have to decide whether to put cash ahead of country.

A statement from ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed is the latest chapter in a war of words between cricket's world governing body and the players over sponsorship rights ahead of next month's tournament in Sri Lanka.

Speed said: "If a player now finds that, through his own actions, he has put his commercial interests ahead of his ability to play for his country he needs to decide what is more important to him, the money or playing for his country."

The ICC has signed up a string of official sponsors for the prestigious event, dubbed the 'mini World Cup', but some players have personal agreements with rival companies.

The ICC, though, is determined to protect its sponsors if competing firms try to cash in on the event through 'ambush marketing'.

Speed's comments came on the same day that Australian Cricketers' Association (ACA) chief executive Tim May told Reuters that Australia players would not sign ICC contracts to play at the Champions Trophy because they felt their sponsorship rights had been signed away without consultation.

"An offer has been made, an offer has been rejected, I would have thought the issue is now back with the ICC," May said.

The impasse could also affect next year's World Cup.

Speed, though, added: "It is a well established practice in elite sport that, for the benefit of the game, protection against ambush marketing is given to the sport's commercial partners.

TARGETING

"This is nothing new... It is in place at the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, the Rugby World Cup and the Football World Cup and it was a key element of the arrangements agreed with the players for the Cricket World Cup in 1999.

"We are also well aware of the activities of some big businesses targeting individual players and encouraging them to sign agreements that are in direct conflict with the people who are investing many millions of dollars in to the game.

"We are on high alert on this issue and we will not let the people who are supporting the sport be ambushed."

He added: "I must also emphasise that the ICC wants the best players in the world to play in the Champions Trophy and the World Cup and will do everything it can to make this happen.

The limited-overs Champions Trophy starts on September 12 and includes all the world's leading sides.

Many leading Indian players -- led by Sachin Tendulkar and captain Saurav Ganguly -- are also expected to balk over signing the contracts because of their own lucrative advertising deals. If they did sign, they could be in breach of those agreements.

The dilemma will also worry national cricket boards since the ICC, as part of their marketing and sponsorship obligations, has asked each country to guarantee fielding their best available teams for leading events. Failing to do so could mean unhappy sponsors launching legal action.

HIJACK

On the other hand, Speed suggested, players could be ordered by their private sponsors not to take part in events backed by rival companies.

"It would be terrible for cricket that if just because a big business is not able to hijack an event it decides to resort to using the legal system to stop the best players in the world from playing for their country," he said. "That is clearly not in the interest of the game or the players."

Cricket's most famous case of 'ambush marketing' came in the 1996 World Cup in the sub-continent, when Pepsi fought back against Coke -- an official sponsor -- by flying huge air-balloons with their logo on the edge of match venues.

They also handed out Pepsi signs for supporters to wave, while ordering their contracted players not to approach the Coke drinks carts during breaks in play.

During the 1999 cricket World Cup, eventual champions Australian had to forgo their then team sponsor because it was a competitor of the tournament sponsor Pepsi.

The ICC, backed by all national cricket boards, signed a 550 million dollar commercial rights agreement in 2000 for all its events through until 2007.

England said earlier this week they were confident their players would sign their ICC contracts for the Champions Trophy, while Pakistan are also optimistic.

Team manager Yawar Saeed said on Wednesday: "I don't think the contract is such a big issue for our players, because they have individual and team sponsorships with the same company which is a major sponsor of the World Cup."

Mail Cricket Editor