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BCCI rejects players' requests
Wisden CricInfo staff - September 3, 2002

The ICC contracts crisis moved no further to resolution as the week began, with the Indian players sending a letter to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) asking for clarifications, and the BCCI refusing to budge from their position. The Indian players responded to ICC's deadline extension by sending the BCCI a letter which said that they "could consider" signing the contract if two key clauses were deleted from the contract. These were: the one giving the ICC rights to use their images from the event for six months after the event, and the one barring them from endorsing rivals of ICC's event sponsors for a month after the event.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, president of the BCCI, rejected the demand outright. Speaking to The Times of India, he said, "the players are simply dragging their feet. They don't realize the urgency of the matter. Why don't they just pick up the phone and speak to me?"

However, while Dalmiya was inflexible on the players' demand regarding the ban on endorsing rival sponsors for a month after the event, he was willing to bend on the issue of image rights.

"All nations except India have granted imaging rights to ICC and its sponsors," he said. "It may therefore be difficult for ICC to grant any relaxation for only one nation. But I intend to speak to ICC that none of the Indian players are called upon for imaging in the ICC Champions Trophy."

Niranjan Shah, the secretary of the BCCI, put matters in perspective while speaking to The Indian Express. "The players must realize our position vis-à-vis ICC and its contracts, " he said. "We can't change or amend any clauses on our own. Still, Dalmiya is very much hopeful of using his skills to get relaxation on some clauses, so it's for the players to compromise a bit too."

Dalmiya held out hopes of a swift resolution though, saying that the BCCI would "thrash out the impasse by Tuesday. We just can't be playing a guessing game all the time."

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