Resolving sponsorship issues and players' concerns are a priority for International Cricket Council administrators.

International Cricket Council (ICC) president Malcolm Gray and ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed spent almost an hour with the media at the Taj Samudra hotel in Colombo on Saturday. They made it very clear that ICC intends to resolve the outstanding issues with regards to the sponsorship and player terms at the earliest.

"A paper that goes to the ICC board that says, these are the issues, and we don't want it to drag out to right before the World Cup. There is a time frame to address the issue, and we intend to deal with it in October and the first half of November. We can sign off then and put the issue behind us," Speed said.

Gray was quite categoric about the player terms issue, which has threatened to take the game apart.

"It is quite important that the facts are clear. The player terms, as they are for this tournament, were first notified to the countries in December 2001."

He said that the player terms were formulated with the World Cup 2003 in mind, and since the venue for the ICC Champions Trophy was not finalised then, "The player terms for this tournament were given to the countries in March/April of this year.

"In fact a similar player terms contract was given to member countries for the Under-19s World Cup, which was played in New Zealand in January. And they were exactly the same player terms given to the countries in December," Gray added.

When asked about why the players were not notified about the player terms, Gray was quick to make it clear, "It is the boards that have the relationship with their players. It is up to the individual national boards to consult with their players, and to handle the management of the players."

Addresing the same issue, Speed said that the sponsorship agreement signed by the ICC with Global Cricket Corporation is a great deal for cricket. "There weren't too many players up there who were saying now we dont want this cheque for significantly increased prize money. Tomorrow the players will be going out flat to win $US300,000 prize money. Again when they come for the World Cup, the prize money is increasing," Speed told the media.

Speed said that as a result of this ICC Champions Trophy each full member board will take home $US800,000, and for the World Cup, they will be taking a million dollars.

If revenue-sharing were an issue for the players, Speed made it clear that it is for the member boards to address that issue.

"ICC doesn't pay the players, ICC generates the money from these events and pays it back to the boards. The boards enter into the agreements with the players. We need to be clear about that," said Speed.

When quizzed about the general criticism that ICC often fails to show some spine in addressing major issues and lets them drag on, Speed refuted such criticisms and put forward a case to defend its image. He said that ICC had an issue with the Indian board on the Sahara sponsorship issue.

And, he made it clear that the Indian board and GCC were given an opportunity to present their case to the ICC Board. After hearing the arguments, the ICC board voted 12-1 to reject the Sahara sponsorship.

Amongst other such financial issues, Gray sympathised with the Pakistan board for the loss of substantial revenue from having to play their home games at neutral venues. He said that to address all sorts of financial issues, "A paper is going to the board, whereby a loan fund will be set up, and countries that are in need of funding will be able to borrow."

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