New Delhi, May 18: The cricket board may have to forget about at least a part of its World Cup guarantee money withheld by the International Cricket Council as the event sponsors have made compensation claims for losses arising out of the alleged breach of contract by the Indian cricketers. Some of the World Cup official sponsors -- who included Pepsi, LG and Hero Honda -- have approached the Global Cricket Corporation (GCC), the sponsorship rights holders for the event, asking to be compensated because the Indian players refused to play in the tournament under the originally agreed terms.
It has been reliably learnt that the companies had made their claims even before the start of the World Cup in South Africa once it was clear that the Indian players were not going to honour the original contracts.
LG confirmed that it was "suitably compensated" by GCC before the start of the world cup. However, the company filed a fresh claim with GCC after it was "ambushed" during the tournament and that case is pending.
While Pepsi chose not to comment, Hero Honda was reluctant to share information. "It is not something that we would like to discuss right now. We are happy with the way things are moving and quite hopeful that the matter would be resolved to our satisfaction," said Atul Sobti, senior vice-president (marketing) of the Hero Honda Motors.
But GCC confirmed it was faced with compensation claims from the sponsors.
Bureau Report