Tuesday, Aug 20, 2002
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Cricket
By Our Special Correspondent
In a press release issued at 5.30 p.m. (local time) on Monday, the team said: " we are put in a peculiar situation where we are not boycotting the ICC run tournament, but the ICC is boycotting us". By making the above statement the Indian team has conveyed that it will not consider the three options given to it by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Sunday and that signing of the agreement is out of question. The team has said: "A great moral responsibility has been thrust upon us. We have been told that unless we sign a document, which forces us to relinquish all our intellectual and personal commercial rights, we would be ineligible to play for our country in tournaments conducted by the ICC. We are all asked to surrender our intellectual property". According to the team clause 10, "the squad member hereby grants to the IDI the irrevocable right during the term and for six months following conclusion of the event to use, and/or sub license the use by other persons of the squad members name(s), photograph(s), likeness, performance(s), autograph(s) and biographical material in connection with the promotion of the event and exploiting the commercial rights". The team has also said that clause 13 strips the individuals of most of their rights. The clause reads: "The squad member shall not (from 30 days before the first match and until 30 days after the last match of the event) directly or indirectly allow his name, voice, image, likeness or other representation to be used either in any advertising or endorsement for any commercial purpose in any media whatsoever by or on behalf of a competitor". The team has revealed that the BCCI proposed to take up the matter with the ICC after the Champions Trophy for which the players received a letter from President, Mr. Dalmiya asking them `to comply with the player terms only pertaining to this trophy'. "The ICC restrictions are overtly broad, covering not just the Champions Trophy, but thirty days before and after. In the present case, therefore, by simply signing this contract the ICC would already allege breach. In addition, the ICC sponsors can use our images for six months after the tournament subject to the terms of the player contract. Also this period of six months covers the World Cup in 2003" said the release. "We believe by signing the player contract, we are caught totally in the middle. On the one hand we suffer exposure from the ICC/BCCI when they could allege non-compliance with our obligations. On the other hand, we could face exposure from our competitive sponsors who have paid us for the right to exploit our brand and image commercially". "We have been told that rules exist in other sports as well. In the Olympics and even the extremely commercialised world of World Cup football such restrictions don't exist. Players freely endorse the products of corporates who have supported them all along. In all such events the only restriction is that none of these advertisements imply an official association for those companies who are in competition to the official sponsors". In addition the team has said that "the ICC contract is based on an advertisement agreement that extends through the 2007 World Cup, and therefore would not only affect current players, but those who are yet to represent India. Two months before an event is not the right time to discuss such vital issues". "We first got the contract after the final of the NatWest series. We have been landed with this problem in the midst of a tour of England, which is back to back with the ICC Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka.'' "As we are approaching a very important Test match we would like to concentrate on our cricket and Mr. Ravi Shastri, when requested, agreed to be the spokesperson. We want to play. We are not asking for anything more than that we have been getting. We are just not being allowed to play much against our wishes," added the release.
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