The Board of Control for Cricket in India rejected the 'final offer' of the International Cricket Council on the contracts issue on Wednesday and called for scrutiny of the World Cup sponsorship agreements while emphasising that the Board would firmly back the players.
The Special General Meeting of the Board, which deliberated on the contentious issue for nearly four hours at Kolkata, also decided to select the final squad of 15 players for the World Cup by the December 31 deadline while empowering president Jagmohan Dalmiya to take any further action in the matter.
"The Board felt it was necessary to ascertain whether the rights given to the World Cup sponsors under the Sponsorship
Agreements were in consonance with the decisions of the ICC Executive Board", said Dalmiya after the meeting.
"If excessive rights were granted to the sponsors then BCCI, as a stakeholder, should not be called upon to suffer financial losses," he said.
When reminded of the criticism of this stand of the BCCI by ICC president Malcolm Gray a couple of days ago, Dalmiya said, "These issues should not be brushed aside on the pretext of being 'outdated' and 'irrelevant'. Rather it should face scrutiny".
The Board members also issued a threat to the Indian sponsors of the World Cup asking them to "grant dispensations" to Indian cricketers so that they can participate in the Cup and if, "they did not look after the larger interest of the country and its cricket then BCCI will review its commercial relations with them in future".
Replying to a query as to how the board would ensure that all the 15 selected players would sign the World Cup contract before January 14 if the ICC refuses to make more concessions, the BCCI president simply said, "just wait and watch."
"There is a gap of two weeks between the selection of players and deadline for signing and anything can happen," he added.
He also hinted that the Board was ready to take legal recourse as, "we have already taken legal opinion on the issue and we know we are on firm ground".
Dalmiya, who has been negotiating with the ICC bosses for more than two months, was also empowered by today's general meeting to take any action that would be necessitated in the matter.
The problem faced by the Indian players was, unique in nature as, "our boys get millions of dollars under their existing contracts and it should be accordingly dealt with," said Dalmiya.
To a query on what sort of 'dispensations' were expected from the Indian sponsors of the World Cup, Dalmiya said "the members hoped that these sponsors and partners of the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC) would rise to the occasion foregoing pecuniary considerations in the larger interests of the country and its cricket".
"This gesture would go a long way in continuing the commercial dealings between BCCI and the sponsors", he said while recalling the gesture of Sahara India, which decided to continue with its sponsorship of the Indian team despite objections from the ICC for use of its logo by the Indian team in the Champions Trophy.
Incidentally three out of the four official sponsors of the World Cup are Indian companies and some of them are also Indian partners of the Global Cricket Corporation, the company that markets the World Cup.
Dalmiya, who is also the member of an ICC panel to resolve the contract issue before the World Cup, said that the next round of tele-conference with the ICC top officials is scheduled for Friday and the matter would be discussed again.
The ICC had earlier warned the BCCI that its failure to accept the final offer of concession in the players term and ensure participation of its best team to the World Cup beginning in South Africa on February 8 would evoke huge damage claim.
Dalmiya, however, expressed hope that the matter would be amicably settled saying " the ICC is our parent body and it is our topmost priority that everybody participates in the World Cup".
As per the final offer of the world body, the Indian players had to accept restrictions on personal endorsement in direct conflict with those of official sponsors for a period of 30 days before and five days after the World Cup, apart from the time when the tournament was on. The official sponsors would also have the right to use the images of the players for three months after the World Cup.
The BCCI had already said that it would accept restrictions on personal endorsement only during the World Cup while it insists that players with pre-existing conflicting contracts should not be called for imaging and for others it should be only for two months after the World Cup.