Barely 24 hours before the start of the ICC Champions Trophy, the sponsor of the Indian cricket team, Sahara India Parivar, decided to change its logo for the tournament after South African Airlines (SAA), one of the sponsors of Champions Trophy, complained of a clash in interest. Briefing mediamen here on Wednesday, the council director of Sahara India, Amar Singh said that Sahara Airlines was not a rival of South African Airlines. He said that "We were told by the ICC and the GCC that they had objected to the name Sahara." The new logo was included to avoid "abush marketing". The Indian team will now wear the new logo—"Subrata"—named after the Sahara group’s chairman Subrata Roy, during the September 12-29 event. But for non-ICC events, the Indian team will be allowed to use their original logo. The company’s council director said that the decision had been taken in the "larger interest of the country and its cricket lovers". He added that "We decided to introduce a new logo instead of pulling out of the sponsorship deal. The logo will be used whenever such a conflict arises." The International Cricket Council (ICC) has signed a $550 million deal with Global Cricket Corportaion (GCC) for all ICC events till 2007. The contract bars all the teams from endorsing products of companies that are rivals of the official tournament sponsors.
