India agree deal in sponsorship dispute

India have finally relented and agreed to send a full-strength squad to the ICC Champions Trophy – the biggest one-day tournament after the World Cup – which gets under way in Sri Lanka later this week.

The eleventh hour decision followed a worldwide teleconference conducted yesterday by the International Cricket Council, which had been desperate to end a long-running dispute centred on intellectual property rights of the Indian players as well as conflicts of interest between official tournament sponsors and the individual backers of the Indian players.

India's players had disputed a clause preventing them from endorsing products of their own individual sponsors, who are rival companies to official tournament backers, 30 days either side of ICC events, arguing they had not been consulted over their existing lucrative sponsorships. They also opposed official tournament sponsors being allowed to use their images for up to six months.

Eventually the ICC reached a compromise deal with the players, but, having agreed it, then found that the Indian cricket board, the BCCI, had vetoed it because they feared that they might be sued by unhappy tournament sponsors.

Yesterday, however, Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, was finally persuaded that if any sponsors connected with the tournament later sued the BCCI that the Indian board would not have to pay the bill. But, at about the time that a frantic telephone conference was reaching this conclusion, India's captain, Sourav Ganguly, was warning that there could be further, similar problems for next year's World Cup in South Africa.

"A lot more negotiations will be needed before the World Cup, because there are a lot more official sponsors involved," Ganguly said.

Ganguly will none the less lead a side containing all India's leading talents: Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Virender Sehwag and company. India have been drawn in the same pool as England and Zimbabwe and they open their account against the latter on Saturday, with England, who fly out to Sri Lanka on Thursday, meeting the African side next Wednesday.