LEEDS, Aug 21: A mass boycott of next month’s prestigious ICC Champions Trophy edged a step closer Wednesday as leading players across the world refused to back down in a row with cricket’s authorities over sponsorship rights.

India’s cricket board tried to buy time in an attempt to persuade its top players at the centre of the row to put patriotism before their bank balances and take part in the tournament in Sri Lanka.

India captain Saurav Ganguly, however, failed to respond to the olive branch and won backing from England counterpart Nasser Hussain, his rival in an ongoing Test series.

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) president Jagmohan Dalmiya told reporters in Bangalore Wednesday that an expanded squad of 25 unnamed “probables” had been picked for the event as a safeguard after the country’s top players refused to sign a tournament contract restricting their individual sponsorship rights.

But he added the rebels would be welcomed back into the team at the 11th hour before the start of the Champions Trophy on Sept 12.

“Anybody with a change of heart is welcome,” he said. “There is no deadline for anything.”

The row could lead to second-string teams being sent to the Champions Trophy as well as rolling over into next year’s World Cup.

It centres on a demand by the International Cricket Council, the game’s world governing body, that players taking part in ICC tournaments sign contracts barring them from being sponsored by rivals of official event sponsors.

The measure, backed by national cricket boards, was drafted to stop those rival firms from launching “ambush marketing” campaigns to coincide with major tournaments.

The players, though, argue that the contract clause infringes their commercial rights and would be in conflict with their existing sponsorships. Top Indian players in particular, like Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly, can make millions of dollars from personal endorsements.

Ganguly told a press conference in Leeds on the eve of the third Test against England that he was reluctant to make a statement but added ominously: “We have given the board our thoughts, the rest is up to the board and the ICC.”

Hussain, meanwhile, said he backed the Indians as a point of principle even if he and his side did not earn major personal endorsements.

“We don’t have any superstars in our dressing room but I know the issue affects some superstars around the world,” he said.

“We are showing solidarity with some very fine cricketers in world cricket who are having problems at the moment.”

The Champions Trophy, staged every two years, is the only limited-overs tournament outside the World Cup which attracts all of the 10 Test-playing nations. The ICC had hoped to announce all the squads taking part by Aug 12.

India’s players have chosen former skipper Ravi Shastri to talk to the Indian board on their behalf but he also took a hard line in Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph.

He said: “The board can pick and send a second-rung team to Sri Lanka if it wants, but the players will not budge.”

ICC chief executive Malcolm Speed, in India on commercial ICC business, was quoted by the Press Trust of India news agency as saying he was in touch with Dalmiya, adding: “I sincerely hope the Indian players would retract from their stubborn stand for the sake of the game and participate in full strength.”

Australian Cricket Board (ACB) chief executive James Sutherland, meanwhile, speaking after a meeting with the Australian Cricketers’ Association (ACA) in Brisbane, conceded that Australia could also be forced into sending a second XI to Colombo for the Sept 12-29 event.

“Ultimately that could be a possibility,” Sutherland told reporters.

“What we need to do under the ICC agreement is deliver the best possible team and what we are trying to do now is work with the ACA and our players to reach a situation that they are comfortable about their rights.”

ACA chief executive Tim May, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the ICC contract, told reporters the players would not be rushed into a decision.

“It’s too early to speculate on the outcome,” May said.

In South Africa the chief executive of the South African Cricketers’ Association, Tony Irish, said he would meet United Cricket Board managing director Gerald Majola Thursday to “see what solutions exist”.

The ICC, which argues it will not be able to command major sponsorships and thus feed money back into the world game unless official sponsors are protected, has said it is up to the national cricket boards to sort out the problem since they are the players’ direct employers.

But Irish said: “For the ICC to wash its hands of this matter is not correct, because they created the problem.

“The main problem is that the ICC sold rights it didn’t have,” Irish said. “It’s not simply about money for the players — they are being put in a very difficult position with regard to their existing sponsors.”

Cricket’s most famous case of “ambush marketing” came in the 1996 World Cup in the sub-continent, when Pepsi fought back against Coca Cola — an official sponsor — by flying huge air-balloons with their logo on the edge of match venues.—Reuters