ICC held firm on its stance on the contracts issue after Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the BCCI, resigned from the ICC Contracts Committee. Malcolm Gray, the ICC president, said that he was quite willing to go ahead with the arbitration process that Dalmiya had called for. "The BCCI would like to go in for arbitration," Gray said, speaking to a news channel. "We would like to do that as quickly as possible but the BCCI have a legal obligation to get their cricketers to sign the player terms agreement."

Gray reiterated ICC's view by stating that "the BCCI has a contractual obligation to field the best Indian team. (If not) there will be large damages and compensation.

He also accepted Dalmiya's resignation from the Contracts Committee, stating that "we welcome his resignation if it's going to help solve the problem. But it does not change at all the (BCCI's) legal obligation."

Earlier, in a move that could lead world cricket into tricky legal waters, the BCCI issued a notice to ICC asking it to review the legality of the ICC contract. Dalmiya also announced his resignation from the ICC Contracts Committee.

"In all fairness ICC have not asked me to resign," Dalmiya said. "But as the BCCI has decided to contest the legality of the restrictive clauses of the contract, it won't be fair on my part to remain on the Committee."

The BCCI put the ICC Development International (IDI) – ICC's Monaco-based commercial operation – on notice that it was seeking redress through non-binding mediation immediately to resolve the ongoing contract dispute.

"Very frequently we are finding from media releases from ICC about the legality and clauses about the agreement," Dalmiya said. "At the same time there is no explanation coming forward about how our rights as stakeholders were taken away and given behind our backs. And therefore, the BCCI has decided that the time has come to test the legality of the whole issue."

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