Players to seek board's permission for endorsements

The BCCI has decided that from October Indian players will have to seek the board's permission before they sign endorsement deals. The players' contracts come up for renewal on October 1 and the board, through a clause in the contracts, will ensure that there is no conflict of interest between the board's sponsors and those of individual players.

"We have decided to ask the players to give us advance information about the endorsement contracts they will sign in future to avoid clash of sponsors' interests," said Niranjan Shah, the board secretary.

Shah explained that there was already a clause in the contract which required the players to send a copy of every signed endorsement deal to the board. As per the altered clause, the board will insist that the players intimate it about endorsement deals they were interested in and get its approval before going ahead and signing on the dotted line.

Asked whether the players would get a chance to look at the deals which the BCCI has signed vis-a-vis the team, Shah said, "we are an open book and everyone knows who are our team sponsors".

Commenting on the new developments, Virender Sehwag said the players had no issue with the BCCI signing up various companies as team sponsors as long as it did not trample on their individual sponsorship contracts.

"I don't think it is a problem. We can do whatever they [the team sponsors] demand as long as it is for the team. As long as it is not an individual demand, it is fine," said Sehwag.

The BCCI has signed a contract worth $ 43 million (Rs190 crore) with Nike that allows the Nike label to be displayed on the non-leading arm of the players' jerseys and on their trousers.

The Nike contract would be in conflict with some of the players who have individual contracts with rival companies, Adidas and Reebok.