da dobrowin： The International Cricket Council (ICC) claimed no responsibility on Mondayfor the Sahara sponsorship fiasco that leaves the India team without a teamsponsorship during a major global event
Charlie Austin17-Sep-2002The International Cricket Council (ICC) claimed no responsibility on Mondayfor the Sahara sponsorship fiasco that leaves the India team without a teamsponsorship during a major global event.Sahara India Group withdrew their team sponsorship on Sunday, estimated tobe worth approximately $US13.5 million over three years, after the teamwalked on to the field against Zimbabwe without their normal Sahara logo.The ICC had forced the Indian cricket board to drop the logo after acomplaint from South African Airlines, an official sponsor of the 12-teamevent.In a media statement Sahara hinted at legal action against the Indian board,saying that Sahara would take steps to “protect national pride and enforceits rights, and initiate appropriate legal proceedings against allconcerned.”The BCCI may then demand compensation from the ICC, claiming that theirobjections to the Sahara sponsorship to be unreasonable considering thatSahara, which manages a small domestic airline, is not a direct competitorto South African Airlines.But the ICC is convinced that the Indian board will have to face up to theconsequences alone.”It’s really unfortunate that the Indian team sponsors have decided towithdraw their support and the matter is between the BCCI and the SaharaGroup,” said ICC’s Brenden McClements on the tournament’sofficial website.”The terms and conditions were made known to all the boards much in advanceand they should have sorted this problem between them,” he added.”I thinkthe ICC will not have any problem and there is no question of compensation.”This not the first time that teams have been forced to drop their mainsponsors for an ICC event.”In 1999 World Cup, the Australian team was sponsored by Ansett, while thetournament was sponsored by Emirates,” explained McClements. “The AustralianCricket Board decided to drop Ansett as it was a competitor to Emirates.”And, in this tournament, Bangladesh were forced to blank out their Cokelogos because Pepsi was a global partner.