As the Indian tourists prepared for the NatWest Series of one-day internationals with England and Sri Lanka with a match against Sussex at Hove, just up the road an English firm was counting the cost of dealing with their shirt sponsors – Air Sahara. There is even a court order that allows for any of the airline's planes landing in the UK or USA to be impounded.

The action has been brought by a small aviation spares business based near Gatwick airport, Aerospace Support Associates Ltd. The owner, Kate Evans is outraged that the team will be playing in shirts sponsored by an airline that owes her company a substantial sum of money.

"I am really angry that when we watch the Indians play, we shall see the sponsor's name prominently displayed while they owe us a considerable sum of money," she said. "I wish everyone looking on was aware of how Air Sahara conducts its business."

Some six years ago, ASA supplied aircraft spares to Sahara to the value of US$80,000 which, in spite of their efforts, remains unpaid, albeit agreed. It is not an insignificant amount of money for a small company to have outstanding for such a long time during which the company has 'invested' further in debt-collection agencies and Indian court attendance charges. All to no avail.

The American lawyer retained to collect the outstanding debt, Weston Carter of Regency Credit, said of his dealings with Air Sahara: "In my 25 years of experience as an international debt collector, I have no comparison for this case due to the dishonest and deceitful manner that this company conducts it's business." His three-year campaign on behalf of ASA has yet to bear fruit, despite the fact that there is no doubt about the validity of the debt.

The way the business works is that ASA take units needing repair from the airline and supply a replacement serviceable unit, charging Sahara 10% of the units value as a service fee. Once the unit has been repaired by ASA, a second invoice is issued for the repair work. Sahara knew how the system worked when they entered into the deal, but then claimed that, because they had made one payment, they could not get further payments through foreign exchange controls.

As soon as it became obvious that Sahara were not intending to pay, ASA put a credit block on Sahara, who promptly went to other local companies for their spares service. One by one, those suppliers also found that the airline appeared to have no intention of meeting their debts as word got around in a small community.

Asked for a comment on the allegations that they have not met properly issued invoices, Air Sahara's silence has been deafening.

In the meantime, Air Sahara continue their high-profile sponsorship of the Indian cricket team and advertise compensation for late flights with the slogan "If we delay, we pay." It seems that offer does not extend to business debts.

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