Ambush marketing has caught the Indians on the wrong foot again, with captain Sourav Ganguly and Irfan Pathan being warned by the International Cricket Council against flouting the controversial clause.
Barely three days after the high-profile tournament got underway, the Indian captain and the young left-arm paceman were asked to refrain from a marketing campaign, which is in direct conflict with one of the main sponsors for the Champions Trophy.
The two players were informed by the BCCI about the breach and have consequently advised their sponsors against going ahead with the campaign.
The duo also assured that there would be no breach in future.
"The ICC sent us a letter on the issue which we immediately brought to the notice of the two Indian players. They have done the correctives and informed their sponsors about the same," Indian team manager Gautam Das Gupta said in Birmingham on Monday.
The ICC had sent a letter to the BCCI about Ganguly and Pathan featuring in a marketing campaign by Tata Indicom, which is in conflict with official sponsors Hutch Telecom.
ICC spokesman Jon Long said, "The only thing I can confirm at the moment is that the ICC has sent a letter to the BCCI about the matter."
According to the ambush clause, no player can endorse a product that is in direct conflict with the official sponsors for 45 days before, during and after the ICC event.
BCCI secretary S K Nair said in Chennai that the ICC had indeed written to it about the breach and it is taking "necessary steps" to ensure the contract issue does not return to haunt the team.
"We received a letter from the ICC on this issue. Two days ago we asked the players through the team management about it as we needed to cross-check ICC's claims that Sourav Ganguly and Irfan Pathan had breached the ambush marketing clause," Nair said.
"We [BCCI] have acted upon the issue without loss of time and written suitably to ICC. We have also asked Tata Indicom to refrain from it," he said.
