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Tag: South African Airways

  • Agreement on cricket row in sight , formal announcement expected Thursday

    Agreement on cricket row in sight , formal announcement expected Thursday

    NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: It is all about money, honey! Forget patriotism and all that blah blah. And since it has all boiled down to hard economics, a solution to the whole cricket controversy was arrived at in principle today. Though the deal is not signed and delivered as yet, it should be by Thursday, sources close to the negotiations said.

    According to cricketing sources, the five top Indian players – Sachin Tendulkar, Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and Virendra Sehwag – together have reportedly sought a compensation of about Rs 50 million from the Board of Cricket Control in India (BCCI) in lieu of signing on the dotted line. And while the finer points are still being discussed, the board has agreed to the terms.

    The BCCI and Jagmohan Dalmia, the strongman of Indian cricket, are understood to have worked out a three-point formula for a face-saving solution to the vexed issue that has hogged the headlines these past few weeks. 

    The three-point formula includes a proposal that the cricketers will get a percentage of the money that the International Cricket Council (ICC) will give to BCCI, and that in future the players will be kept apprised of all such sponsorship deals being inked by the BCCI, the ICC and other stakeholders of the game. 

    And who are the other stakeholders? Some of the global partners who have paid through their nose to get sponsorship rights to the ICC tourneys. These parties have contested the ICC’s reported stand that the global sponsors are ready to re-negotiate the terms and conditions of the sponsorship deals.

    A senior executive of one of the global sponsors of ICC cricket today told indiantelevision: “We have read media reports from London where ICC has been quoted as saying that the global partners may re-negotiate the contracts. But as of today there has been no official intimation on this front.” 

    Echoing a similar sentiment a senior executive for Pepsi Foods India Pvt. Ltd. said that there has been “no indication from the ICC on renegotiations of the contract.” The executive further added that if any term of the contract is changed (as the binding on personal endorsement by players is only limited to the up and coming Champions Trophy in Sri Lanka, for example) or is being sought to be changed, then the whole agreement has to be re-negotiated.

    The global sponsors of the upcoming Champions Trophy and Next March’s World Cup in South Africa, which include the likes of Pepsi, LG, Hero Honda, Toyota, South African Airways, United Breweries of South Africa, are reported to have coughed up close to Rs 2,000 million for a bunch of sponsorship rights which they are not ready to give up easily.

    But ICC, though apparently facing an uphill task, has kept up its tough stand, including the fact that ICC chief Malcolm Speed when in Mumbai last week, was quoted by Reuters as saying the personal endorsement ban for a month before and after an ICC tournament will stay for the World Cup too.

    Now that the stalemate between BCCI, one of the richest sports bodies in the world, and the top Indian cricketers has been breached, it remains to be seen whether LG will finally reach a deal with Sony Entertainment Television, which has the C&S telecast rights to the tournament.

    Ganesh Mahalingam, marketing head of LG India, earlier today told indiantelevision.com: “I am not going to freeze any deal with Sony Entertainment TV (scheduled to air the ICC cricket matches on SET Max) unless and until the BCII announces the full and final team for the Champions Trophy.” 

    LG India had earlier rejected an offer from SET India for getting a certain amount of airtime for the matches of Champions Trophy and the World Cup for Rs 600 million. Reason: “The rates are preposterous and unrealistic,” according to Mahalingam. Since then, SET is believed to have made another offer to LG India on which a decision has not been taken as yet. Now that a full strength squadis almost certain to be headed for the Emerald Isles next month, Sony will certainly have a much stronger bargaining position on the terms it has set. 

    The other two main India sponsors for the ICC cricket – Pepsi and Hero Honda – have already signed up, industry sources say.

  • ICC and cricketers: Heading for a confrontation on sponsorships?

    ICC and cricketers: Heading for a confrontation on sponsorships?

    A battle royale is expected to ensue in the cricketing arena. And it’s not to do with what’s happening on the cricketing pitch. It’s more to do with the commercial transactions that have gone to make the game the money-spinner that it has become.

     

    On one side are the game’s governing body the International Cricket Council (ICC) and the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) BCCI. On the other side are India’s top-notch players, Indian audiences, advertisers and sponsors who have made the players ambassadors and endorsers of their brands.    
         

    At stake are deals worth millions of dollars that have been struck by all the players involved. In 2000, based on agreements in place for the 1999 World Cup, all Boards, through the ICC, agreed to a number of sponsorship and personal endorsement restrictions in return for $US550 million for the commercial rights to ICC events through until 2007. The ICC is to distribute a record $US102 million of this income to the Boards and the players from the ICC Champions Trophy and the ICC Cricket World Cup 2003. The commercial partners who did the deals then include: South African Airways, Hero Honda, Pepsi, and LG.

     
    The ICC late last night advised all the national cricket boards that it would not change the ambush marketing protection given to the ICC’s commercial sponsors. In a letter, the ICC CEO Malcolm Speed stated that the ICC is protecting its commercial partners by ensuring that their competitors are unable to associate with the event.

     

    “Every major sporting event provides protection to their partners and anyone involved in elite sport would recognise that this is an essential component of being able to stage these events,” says Speed.

     

    What the ICC’s decision means is that if Sachin Tendulkar chooses to play for India in the ICC tournament he may have to endorse Hero Honda products, when he already has an advertising contract with two wheeler maker TVS. This is not something, which may be acceptable to either TVS or Sachin. So that leaves him with the other option: drop out of the squad. Which puts him in a further bit of bother as the ICC has said that the best cricketers have to be sent for the tournaments.

     

    Other cricketers who may be in a spot of bother include: Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Virendra Sehwag, and Anil Kumble – all of who are on the endorsement circuit and have been paid crores of rupees for this.

     

    Recognising the problems, the Federation of International Cricketers’ Associations (FICA), which claimed to represent cricketers from almost 70 per cent of the cricket playing nations – excluding India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan – had been petitioning the ICC on the same ground since earlier this year, saying that because of ICC’s commitment to sponsors, players may be forced to associate with products in competition with those they already endorse. Some of the players contracts pre-date the ICC’s with its sponsors, FICA’s CEO Tim May had then said, which was patently unfair.

     

    The ICC had shot down FICA’s plea saying it was not a representative union of cricketers world over. May had then said that he hoped he would be able to resolve the crisis by having the ICC change the ambush-marketing clause.

     

    Last night’s letter from Speed apparently has put paid to all those hopes. “The ICC is well aware of ambush marketing programs being developed in conflict with tournament sponsors. To change the agreement in the manner sought would dramatically undermine the essential protection ICC’s commercial partners are entitled to enjoy,” the letter says.

     

    In the letter, Speed has pointed out that seven out of 10 Full Members have signed their Participating Nations Agreement (PNA) for the Champions Trophy and that all Full Member Boards have signed the PNA for the 2003 World Cup.

     

    “Under this agreement, each Board is committed to sending its best team to these events and the ICC is expecting each Board to meet these commitments by securing their players agreement to participate,” says the letter.

     

    Speed highlights that the negotiation of payments and other terms and conditions for players is the responsibility of the individual Boards.

     

    “The ICC has no direct commercial relationship with any player. Each Board must reach its own agreements with their players as to the terms and conditions that are acceptable to them to agree to represent their country,” says Speed.

     

    The fact that the boards are likely to side with the ICC has put the players on a bad track. Already, the BCCI has reportedly said that it will side with the ICC and it expects its players to follow suit.

     

    Will the players fall in line? TV audiences and the national cricket boards are hoping keeping national interests in mind they well may.

     

    Brawl or Ball, only time will tell.

  • World Sport Nimbus issues clarification on ICC rights

    World Sport Nimbus issues clarification on ICC rights

    In response to the report ” News Corp takes financial charge of global rights for ICC cricket ” World Sport Nimbus (WSN) has issued the following rejoinder: 

    “World Sport Nimbus (WSN) continues to and will continue till 2007 to fulfil the responsibilities and functions by virtue of its agreement with GCC (Global Cricket Corporation) in relation to ICC cricket, which include exclusive management of sponsorship sales worldwide, event management, television licensing in specified territories, radio licensing in specified territories, and television production of specified events. 

    “World Sport Group (plc) and World Sport Nimbus Pte Ltd will not comment on any speculation regarding business restructuring except that neither of these two companies have been or are proposed to be acquired by GCC or Newscorp. 

    “Further, WSN has already achieved or exceeded its targets with regard to all broadcast licenses for television and radio in all its specified territories, and remains on course for its sponsorship targets. Contrary to a speculative report which suggests that four sponsors have been firmed up for the World Cup, WSN confirms that eight sponsors have already been firmed up for the World Cup and with eight months to go for the World Cup, ongoing negotiations to sign on four more are comfortably progressing.

    “The eight sponsors are Pepsi, I.G., Standard Bank, South African Breweries, MTN, Hero Honda, South African Airways and Toyota (SA).”