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The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) triggered a cola war when it said Friday that its players have revoked their contracts with Coca-Cola and have signed up with Pepsi.

"The current players have revoked their contracts with Coca- Cola and barring Yousuf Youhana and Saqlain Mushtaq who are playing in Karachi, the rest have signed up with Pepsi. The two will sign fresh contracts by next week," a PCB official said.

The official further said the PCB was ready to face legal challenge if the players were dragged in the court of law. "Whether the suit is of millions or trillions, the PCB is ready to provide all the legal cover to its players. The board has gone through the contracts and have found out that it is a one-sided one and inadmissible in any court," the official said.

Eight Pakistan players - Waqar Younis, Inzamam-ul-Haq, Saeed Anwar, Yousuf Youhana, Mushtaq Ahmad, Saqlain Mushtaq, Moin Khan and Azhar Mahmood - signed a two-year contract with Coca-Cola through their agents Sports Unlimited.

According to the contracts, which were to run between Jan 1, 2001 to Dec 31, 2002, the players were to make themselves available for products publicity campaigns. But the PCB got involved in the issue after their interests clashed with the players deal. The PCB has an annual $4.6million contract with Coca-Cola's rivals Pepsi.

The PCB official said Coca-Cola have clarified that they have got nothing to do with the PCB or the players. "They have signed the players through Sports Unlimited and therefore, if they filed a suit, it would be against the players agent (Sports Unlimited).

"The PCB enjoys excellent relationship with Coca-Cola and really appreciate their efforts to release our share of 75 per cent from the 1999 Asian Test Championship which was in limbo because of the follies of the PCB.

"Another 20 per cent could have been released had the tri- series in Sharjah between 'A' teams from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India gone ahead as per schedule."

The PCB spokesman clarified that the establishment was supportive of players contracts with multi-national companies but emphasised that it had informed the players and their agent that before entering into any agreement, prior permission from the PCB was necessary.

"That procedure was not followed as the players directly got into contracts. When Sports Unlimited was inquired, it said it had signed the players with Coca-Cola after the cricketers confirmed their availability and conveyed that they had taken permission from the board."

The PCB spokesman said Coca-Cola have been advised to stop payments from October. The eight players were to get final instalment of their lucrative contracts along with bonus'.

"The players new contract with Pepsi is even more attractive and they will earn more than what they would have got from the revoked contract."

The spokesman said Sports Unlimited had informed the PCB not to ask the players to revoke contracts but create a situation where Coca-Cola would have been forced to cancel the contracts.

We were advised not to allow players until October next year which would have automatically resulted in cancellation of contracts by Coca-Cola and thus, the legal battle would have been avoided. "But we don't want any hanky panky. The contracts stand cancelled and we are ready to face any legal battle."

© Dawn