Sports Sponsorship : The "Cricket Ambush Marketing" Dispute. K. Subhadra. A. Munkund. Hyderabad : ICFAI, 2003.
In December 2002, media reports world over provided details of heated debates involving companies such as Britannia, LG, Philips India and HPCL, players of the Indian cricket team, the International Cricket Council (ICC)' and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).2 The cause of the tension: "ambush marketing3 clauses recently bought out by the ICC, that restricted cricket players from endorsing products other than ICC's official sponsors for any major championships conducted by the ICC during 2002-07.
ICC developed ambush marketing clauses to safeguard the rights of companies who had paid huge sums of money to obtain the sponsorship rights for all matches to be held during 2002-07. The official sponsors had reportedly bought the rights for $ 550 million from the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), ICC's marketing partner. The organization was taking pro-active measures to ensure that the problems it (and the official sponsors) had faced earlier due to ambush marketing tactics by the unofficial sponsors could be avoided.
The Indian cricket players strongly opposed ICC's decision, claiming that the contract terms were unfavorable to their financial interests. India's star cricketers Sourav Ganguly (Ganguly) and Sachin Tendulkar (Tendulkar) even went to the extent of threatening to boycott the ICC Champions Trophy to be held in Sri Lanka during September 2002. Indian players were not the only ones who were against the new rules. Players from South Africa and Australia, as well as the Federation of International Cricketers Association (FICA), spoke against ICC and support Indian cricketers.