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Journalism of Courage
The International Cricket Council’s ambush marketing clause has come to haunt the Indian cricketers once again.
Two years after the pre-World Cup contract crisis, two Indian cricketers — skipper Sourav Ganguly and pacer Irfan Pathan — have, according to the ICC, ‘‘clearly infringed’’ the clause and the BCCI has been informed about the breach. Speaking to The Indian Express, ICC spokesman Jon Long said, ‘‘Yes, we have sent a letter to the BCCI regarding the infringement.’’
Ganguly and Pathan feature in a marketing campaign launched by Tata Indicom, a telecom initiative of the Tata Group, which happens to be a direct competitor of Hutch Telecom — the official event partner of the Champions Trophy.
According to the clause, no player can endorse a product which is in direct competition with any of the official sponsors during an ICC event.
Confirming receipt of the ICC’s letter, BCCI secretary SK Nair said, ‘‘We have communicated the ICC stand to the team management in England and are now waiting for a clarification from the players.’’
Sources at Tata Indicom said that Pathan had got in touch with them and asked them to pull down all hoardings featuring him. But Pathan remains very visible in the camapign.
On his part, Pathan also confirmed this but didn’t get in details. ‘‘The matter has been settled and I would not like to comment any further on this.’’
Pathan’s manager Lokesh Sharma claimed that he was ‘‘very much aware’’ of the ICC rules and Pathan’s campaign had been stalled two weeks ago. ‘‘We always go by the rules and had clearly asked Tata Indicom to end the campaign during the event (Champions Trophy). In fact, we even received a confirmation from the sponsors,’’ said Sharma.
Skipper Ganguly though was not available for a comment, but his manager Sanjay Lal, CEO, Percept denied having any knowledge of the matter. ‘‘I was in touch with Sourav till Friday, but we didn’t discuss this matter. Anyways, we only manage the player and not Tata Indicom. The whole camapaign strategy is formulated by them (Tata) and their ad agency.’’
(With inputs from Faisal Shariff in London)
