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Corporates amend contracts with cricketers after ICC row

Partha Ghosh in New Delhi

Corporates, which have signed up Indian cricketers to endorse their products are busy amending their existing contracts with the players following the sponsorship row with the International Cricket Council.

Corporates find themselves restricted from airing commercials featuring these players because of a memorandum of understanding signed with ICC, which restricts rival companies to air commercials featuring cricketers playing in any ICC tournament till 2007 for products specified in the contract.

Samsung, for instance, is learnt to have amended its contract with the seven Indian players it has signed up to endorse products other than consumer durables for which LG has entered into a contract with the ICC.

LG, one of the two global sponsors of the 2003-04 Cricket World Cup, apart from companies such as Hero Honda, has signed the MoU.

According to sources in Samsung, the contract between LG and the ICC is only for consumer durables. So Samsung is mulling the option of airing commercials for other products such as mobile phones and infotech gadgets, which are non-competing.

Ravinder Zutshi, vice-president (sales), Samsung India Electronics, said: "We are looking at whether the agreements can be amended to suit our requirements."

Samsung has earmarked Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million) for its cricket-related campaign over a one-year period.

Venu Srinivasan, chairman and managing director, TVS Motor, said: "I cannot comment on specifics at the moment. We would like to honour the decision of the players. But we are also looking at other options to tide over the crisis."

Motorcycle firm TVS has Sachin Tendulkar as its brand ambassador. But it may not be able to air advertisements featuring the players since Hero Honda is a global supplier to the ICC tournaments, including the two World Cups, till 2007.

Sources close to Sahara group said that the group will not promote its airline during the matches.

"There will be no clash between South Arican Airways - another global supplier - and Air Sahara. The company's contract with the players is with a group firm into real estate business," said company sources.

Coca-Cola declined to comment on the options available to it provided the deal between rival beverage maker Pepsi and the ICC goes through and the players decide to honour this contract.

But Coca-Cola sources said the company is mulling several options with its other brands to promote the flagship brand.

Meanwhile, it is still not clear whether players such as Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid and Virendra Sehwag have signed the ICC contract or not.

The Board for Control of Cricket in India secretary, Niranjan Shah, said that he was still waiting for a response from the players.

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