The ICC insist they have not ignored the rights of players, as the sponsorship row surrounding next month's Champions Trophy continued to escalate. Some player representatives, including Tim May of the Australian Cricketers' Association, have suggested that pre-existing personal endorsements should take precedence over the ICC's commercial arrangements. But Malcolm Speed, ICC's chief executive, strongly rejected claims that the interests of players had been overridden.

"It is a well-established practice in elite sport that, for the benefit of the game, protection against ambush marketing is given to the sport's commercial partners," said Speed. "This is nothing new. It is a long standing practice across a range of sports. It is in place at the Olympics, the Commonwealth Games, the Rugby World Cup and the Football World Cup and it was a key element of the arrangements agreed with the players for the Cricket World Cup in 1999.

"We are also well aware of the activities of some big businesses targeting individual players and encouraging them to sign agreements that are in direct conflict with the people who are investing many millions of dollars in to the game. We are on high alert on this issue and we will not let the people who are supporting the sport be ambushed."

During the 1999 World Cup, Australia had to forego their then team sponsor, Coca Cola, because it was a direct competitor of the official tournament sponsor, Pepsi. Without such concessions, agreed by all Boards in 2000, the ICC would not have been able to secure the multi-million dollar sponsorship deals that have boosted the financial side of the game. By selling the commercial rights to all tournaments through until 2007, the ICC was able to secure a payment of $US550 million. For the Champions Trophy and next year's World Cup, $US102 million of this money is being distributed to the Boards and their players for their participation in the tournaments.

"Given this well-established precedent, "said Speed, "it would be a great surprise if any elite cricketer or his management had the view that the player would be free of any obligations to the ICC tournament sponsors in the Champions Trophy and the World Cup when negotiating any personal endorsements.

"To my knowledge no player or his manager at any stage sought the view of the ICC as to the restrictions that would be in place before they signed these agreements.

"If a player now finds that, through his own actions, he has put his commercial interests ahead of his ability to play for his country, he needs to decide what is more important to him, the money or playing for his country. If it is playing for his country, he needs to find a solution and not look to the ICC to dilute its ambush marketing protections in order solve his contractual issues.

"I must also emphasise that the ICC wants the best players in the world to play in the Champions Trophy and the World Cup and will do everything it can to make this happen.

"It would be terrible for cricket that if just because a big business is not able to hijack an event, it decides to resort to using the legal system to stop the best players in the world from playing for their country. That is clearly not in the interest of the game or the players. I hope that it does not get to this point and that the players are able to agree to play in these tournaments."

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