The Hindu : Ending the cricket row

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 12, 2002

Opinion

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Ending the cricket row

THE PROTRACTED AND seemingly intractable dispute over cricket and contracts has come to a sudden and happy end. At one stage, the positions adopted by the three parties to the dispute — the ICC, the BCCI and the Indian cricket team — appeared so difficult to reconcile that it seemed certain that India would field a second-string team for the Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka. In the end, it was the ICC's accommodation (or climbdown as some would like to see it) which facilitated the agreement. But the contours of this complex dispute shifted so many times from the time it erupted that it is possible to maintain that there was some give and take on all sides. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, it hasn't worked out badly at all for the Indian cricket team, which unitedly fought the ICC's demand that the players sign contracts which bar them from appearing in advertisements for companies which are rivals of the official sponsors of the Champions Trophy event. The contracts with the anti-ambush marketing provisions have been specifically modified after negotiations with the Indian cricket team. Moreover, provisions have been made to compensate any member who might suffer a financial loss on account of signing the ICC contract.

In a sense, the BCCI president, Jagmohan Dalmiya, has also had his way by succeeding to persuade the ICC to underwrite any losses the BCCI may suffer if later sued by sponsors unhappy with the compromise. At one stage, Mr. Dalmiya seemed to be unwisely waging war on two fronts. On the one hand, he warned the Indian cricketers that they had better sign the ICC contract or risk being left out and, on the other, he made it clear to the ICC that the Indian Cricket Board would not bear the financial risk that could emerge from signing the ICC contract. Not surprisingly, the hopes that an agreement would be reached were never very high before the deal was actually cut. One individual or another may congratulate himself for ending the dispute, but what really forced the issue in favour of the Indian cricket team playing in the Champions Trophy was one extremely influential thing: money. It is no secret that the tournament's sponsors were extremely keen that the best Indian cricketers play the Champions Trophy — a reflection of the powerful reach they have in the subcontinent and elsewhere in the world and an acknowledgement that, more than any other country in the world today, it is India which helps to sell cricket. The dispute may have seemed as if it centred around a few high-profile people but there were unseen corporate influences which determined its resolution.

What now? At an immediate level, the cricketing world can put the dispute behind it and focus on the Champions Trophy — which is actually a kind of dress rehearsal for the World Cup early next year. But in the longer term, the controversy has raised issues which have a direct bearing on cricket's future beginning with the World Cup. As the Indian captain, Saurav Ganguly, has warned, it is imperative that the ICC initiates a discussion on the contracts question all over again in order to ensure that a similar situation does not arise in connection with the World Cup. The compromise worked out earlier this week is essentially a short-term one, limited to securing the participation of the best Indian cricketers for the Champions Trophy. It hardly needs to be stressed that the stakes for all the parties in the present dispute will be much greater for the World Cup. Basically, it was the lack of communication which caused the recent dispute (the Indian players were unaware of the contracts signed between the ICC and the Indian Cricket Board) and it was the presence of communication which resolved it (or more exactly, a two-hour global tele-conference). Much more talking needs to be done in order to ensure that this sort of dispute does not mar the World Cup or better still never emerges again.

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