Pakistan cricket has sparked off yet another 'Cola War', the third major confrontation here in the last five years between the two American soft drink giants, Pepsi and Coca-Cola. This latest instance is that of Coke somehow luring seven top Pakistani cricketers - all of whom benefit from Pepsi's lucrative logo deal with the PCB to the tune of Rs 1.6 million to Rs two million annually, depending on the number of matches they have played - into doing a promotion for them.

The result is that Pakistan Television (PTV) prime time these days is inundated with soft drink ads featuring the Pakistani cricket superstars. Skipper Moin Khan (who has reportedly led the pack into signing the deal), Saeed Anwar, Waqar Younis, and Azhar Mahmood appear in the Coca-Cola ad wearing their white kits, brandishing Coke bottles and declaring 'Enjoy!' - the Coke slogan. Pepsi has also stepped up its campaign, putting on air its commercials featuring Saeed Anwar and Shahid Afridi, and the complete cricket team showing Shoaib Akhtar driving a bus topping "100 MPH" for a Pepsi bottle.

The scenario is made even more confusing as some ads featuring Saeed Anwar promoting Pepsi and Coke are sometimes run back-to-back.

While Coke must obviously be gloating at their success in invading their rival's turf, the ad campaign has obviously not gone down very well with Pepsi, to whom it is a case of breach of contract, not to mention trust, and a serious loss of face. More so, because Pepsi has in recent years invested heavily in Pakistan cricket: they have been sponsors of international home series, bought their exclusive soft-drinks rights in a deal which is worth nearly a million dollars a year, and dished out a large sum for logo rights. In addition to paying huge sums of money to acquire the above rights, Pepsi has also regularly bought a huge chunk of 'spectator space' in stadiums where international matches are held. That is not all, as they have also paid hard cash for installing state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities in three stadiums, such as electronic scoreboards and other equipment, in this country.

After this massive cumulative investment, they are obviously seething at Coke getting the mileage from the game, and through those very boys who are ostensibly in their pay, through the logo deal.

Apparently, the players have used the pretext of a legal point in the fine print of the logo deal, which allows them to sign endorsements for off-field activities. But they have ignored the rider that it excludes all soft drinks and beverages. The boys are in a breach of contract because they have neither informed the Board explicitly about their venture nor sought proper permission, which is mandatory for all such activity.

Though neither Pepsi nor the PCB has so far come on record on the issue, it has been learnt that Pepsi has created its share of noise and lodged a very strong protest to the Board, urging the latter to ask its cricketers to walk out of the deal with Coke.

Whatever the outcome, the leading Pakistani cricketers have again put the PCB in an unwelcome position, pitting it against a major sponsor, and creating a controversy when it least wanted one. For its part, Pepsi would be hoping that the PCB chairman, Lt. Gen. Tauqir Zia, who was in Melbourne for the ICC meeting when the issue erupted, would judge the players, and the role of the Pakistan captain in this episode harshly. Zia had only recently snubbed some of those who have appeared in the Coke ad on the issue of coach Javed Miandad's share in the logo deal. Despite that clear response from the PCB chairman, to some independent observers, the fact that the boys have still gone ahead and put the Board in an awkward position goes on to show that player power, the ugly demonstrations of which were seen throughout the '90s in the post-Imran Khan era, may have been curbed but only to an extent, and is still strong enough to challenge those in authority.

Cricketing history of the conflict: When a Michael Jackson concert in Hong Kong, part of a global series sponsored by Pepsi, which was worth tens of millions of dollars, was cancelled because the pop star said that he was dehydrated, Coke made its sales pitch. Almost overnight, it came out with its famous campaign which intended to browbeat its rival, 'Dehydrated? Drink Coca-Cola'. Pepsi returned the 'favour' when it upstaged Coke, with its 'Nothing Official About It' campaign during the 1996 World Cup in the sub-continent. By signing up individual world-class players participating in that version of the World Cup, Pepsi mocked at Coke's official status as the soft drink of the tournament.

That gave an edge to the rivalry between the two Cola companies, and knowing that cricket is a commodity that could get them unrivalled mileage in the cricket-mad sub-continent, both continued to jostle for the rights. Coke was said to be devastated when the PCB wriggled out of a contract with it, and instead signed up with Pepsi in 1998. Three years later, Coke has struck back with a vengeance, and the events so far are by no means the end of the saga.

© CricInfo