The International Cricket Council today welcomed the decision of the President of the Board of Control of Cricket in India to call an emergency Special General Meeting of the BCCI for 25 December to discuss the contract crisis facing the Indian Board.

ICC President Malcolm Gray said that it was critical that the BCCI acted quickly to ensure that it was able to meet its contractual commitments to world cricket.

"An emergency Special General Meeting of the BCCI to deal with the Indian Board's contract crisis is a welcome step in the right direction and an indication that the BCCI recognises the seriousness of the contractual commitments it has undertaken," said Mr Gray.

"With the potential of large damages claims being brought against the Indian Board if it is unable to meet its contractual obligations, it is important that the organisation is able to get a clear understanding of the facts of this issue.

"It is also important for all the members of the BCCI to realise that the substantial concessions negotiated by the ICC are as far as it can go without undermining the integrity of the $US550 million agreement with Global Cricket Corporation.

"This agreement is clearly in the interest of world cricket and it helps to underpin the financial health of the game in 84 countries around the world."

Mr Gray said that the questions raised by the BCCI over the terms of the contracts it has signed were now out of date and irrelevant given that the BCCI had knowingly and willingly entered into its agreement with world cricket on 13 March 2002. These issues were also previously addressed in letter to the BCCI from the ICC Chief Executive, Malcolm Speed.

The current agreement binds the BCCI to sending its best team to the IC Cricket World Cup in 2003 and commits the BCCI to ensuring that its team would abide by the Player Terms in the BCCI's Participating Nations Agreement (PNA).

"Putting aside what is or isn't in various agreements prior to the BCCI signing the Participating Nations Agreements, the fact is that these matters have been superceded by the latest agreement.

"If necessary the previous agreements will be made available to an appropriate body at an appropriate time after the World Cup but the issue today is the need for the BCCI to meet its obligations and for the best team to represent India in the World Cup.

"All details of the obligations on the BCCI and its players were provided to the Indian Board on 21 December 2001 in the BCCI's Participating Nations Agreements. All these obligations were acknowledged and accepted by the BCCI when it signed its PNA on 13 March 2002 without qualification.

"The ICC recognises that the BCCI has placed itself in a difficult position and with the excellent support of LG, Pepsi, Hero Honda and South African Airways, the ICC's World Cup Contracts Committee has negotiated a series of concessions to assist the BCCI.

"These substantial concessions were made to help the BCCI meet its commitments and are far more generous than the strict obligations that the BCCI originally agreed to.

"I trust that the emergency meeting will recognise the extensive concession made by the ICC's sponsors and that the ICC's World Cup Contracts Committee has previously indicted to the BCCI that it has a clear and compelling contractual obligation to provide its best team for the tournament."

The concessions negotiated by the ICC WCCC include:

1. increasing the restrictions on the use of player attributes by ICC sponsors to avoid any suggestion of a personal endorsement by a player;

2. a reduction in the ambush marketing protection period around the tournament for player sponsors. Under the original contract the period was 30 days before the event, the period of the event and 30 days after the tournament. The ICC has been able to negotiate the period after the event down to just five days except for the finalists which would be blocked for 20 days after the event or until the first ODI or Test match, which ever comes sooner;

3. the reduction of the period after the tournament in which sponsors would be able to use player attributes to finalise their promotions from six months to three months; and

4. a revenue sharing arrangement with players on income generated through electronic games

Mr Gray said that having promised to deliver their best players it is now up to the BCCI to deliver on this commitment and to resolve any contractual issues that surround it.

"In terms of managing its relationship with its own players, the BCCI has on several occasions made it abundantly clear to the ICC that it is the BCCI's sovereign right to deal with its people as it sees fit.

"The ICC respects this right and is simply seeking the BCCI to deliver on its contractual promise to world cricket that India's best team will compete at the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2003."

"The issue of selecting a team and managing the contractual relationships with its own players is entirely up to the BCCI and I would expect that the BCCI would act entirely within the law in managing these obligations and not seek to force any of its players to act in an improper manner.

Mr Gray also rejected the criticism of Mr Dalmiya for making a public statement on this issue.

"One of the important aspects in managing cricket on behalf of the hundred of millions of people who follow it is to be open and transparent in running the game," said Mr Gray.

"In this case it was clear that there was growing speculation about this issue that was both inaccurate and misleading.

"For Indian cricket supporters I can't imagine anything more important than knowing that their best team will be at the ICC Cricket World Cup next year and I think it is important for them to understand how the BCCI is going about making sure that this can happen."

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